A hell of a week for kneeing penalties, called and uncalled. This is almost certainly confirmation bias but it really has felt like they've ticked up over the course of the season and it's kind of surprising since that's one of those "respect" things people at the top of this league love to act like is outrageous.

If that's the case, why is it happening so much? One can't help but get the feeling that it's at least partly due to the fact that, until the double-kneeing incident between the Winnipeg Jets and Toronto Maple Leafs the other night, there had been nothing more than a couple of fines. Everything is obviously going to be magnified when the Leafs are involved and there was a fair bit of whataboutism with Neal Pionk being the first (less-successful) kneer, but that Jason Spezza one was outrageous, predatory, and definitely meant as message-sending.

Between this and all the "dangerous trips that border on slew-footing" that ultimately led to Brad Marchand's suspension, you gotta wonder how many of these things happen if the league is more aggressive about dropping suspensions on people early and often.

Let's go: