I have really tried to stop harping on how bad the NHL's Department of Player Safety is at actually trying to keep players safe. It feels like a losing battle, where you're always just gonna be howling into a void about how some guy should have gotten a three-game suspension instead of one.

But man, I thought that Alex Pietrangelo hearing was a layup, a tap-in, a meatball down Main Street. The guy basically tried to make Leon Draisaitl into Luke Skywalker on Bespin, rearing way back and delivering a monster chop onto his wrist or forearm. The intentionality was so obvious, the puck was nowhere near them, the target of his ire was one of the best players in the world.

I know Pietrangelo is a star in his own right — he spent a good portion of the last few years trying to sell me rental cars —