Chara's Cheap Shot

There is history
The hit

Zdeno Chara should have been fined and suspended by the NHL for the potentially career ending hit he put on Max Pacioretty in Tuesdays 4-1 Canadiens victory over the Bruins.

With under 20 seconds left in the second period of a 4-0 game between the Bruins and Canadiens, Chara checks Pacioretty against the stanchion between the teams benches.  The ping noise heard is the sound you hear when someone tosses a rock against a steel pole, only this was someone’s head creating the sound.

With all the attention and research that has been paid to concussions in pro sports over the past couple of years, a hit like this needs to be met with strict punishment.  Had this been James Harrison of the Pittsburgh Steelers delivering the hit, he would have been fined at least $50,000.  Different sports yes, but concussions are just as prevalent in the NHL as they are in the NFL.

I don’t believe Chara intended to injure Pacioretty, however the situation and place on the ice in which the hit occurred makes you wonder if Chara wasn’t trying to send a message.  The two do have history, although it is brief (as seen in above clip).  Chara is a very intimidating player, the Captain of the Bruins, and since his team was being beaten like they were, it wouldn't surprise me if he was intending to deliver a statement hit to Pacioretty to try and rally his team.

Chara was only given a 5 minute major and a game misconduct penalty.  What the NHL should have done, especially with all the concussion research, is suspended him for a short amount of time, and fined him an undisclosed amount.

By fining and suspending Chara, you let the rest of the league know (the majority of which is outraged), that hits like that are not tolerated.  By doing nothing, you leave the door open for more hits of that magnitude to occur, and jeopardize more players careers.

If you've read the book "Public Enemies", every one of the robbers committing the bank heists detailed in the book never went into a bank with the intent to take hostages or shoot anyone, but when they did they had to deal with the consequences of being viewed as murders not modern day Robin Hoods.

Chara didn’t intend to concuss and break Pacioretty's vertebra, but he did, now he has to live with being viewed as a cheap shot artist.