Mason Shaw suspended for two games for kneeing

After a disappointing game that for the Minnesota Wild —with players missing— they’ll be missing another player for a couple of games.

After a minor dust-up featuring Matt Dumba following a clean and major hit and with no instigator penalty handed out to the San Jose Sharks players who started the fight, the Wild players felt compelled to match the physical play of their opponents.

That meant that with the referees not calling the game by the rule book, that the players felt compelled to police the game themselves. For Mason Shaw that meant taking an ill-timed run at Evgeny Svechnikov.

Handed a major penalty and game misconduct in the game, the Department of Player Safety cited Shaw’s shift in position as reason for the two-game suspension for kneeing that they handed out.

While the justification seems plausible, knowing what we know about Shaw’s injury history —multiple, serious ACL injuries— it’s hard to believe that the incident was intentional. At the end of the day, incidental or not, it was a dangerous play.

But maybe Shaw wouldn’t have felt compelled to make a physical statement if the referees had just called the game by the book in the first place.