Does The NHL Have The Balls To Continue Their Head Shot Crackdown In The Playoffs?

The league's done a top-notch job of saying and doing the right things as their NFL counterparts get blasted on ignoring head trauma. New rules against cheap shots and hits on defenseless players are on the books, and have been clearly expressed to the players. Everyone knows what you can't do. But there's been well-deserved criticism of their inconsistent discipline.

What to do with LA's Jarret Stoll, who came in late with an elbow/forearm and smushed San Jose's Ian White into the glass in a cartoonish fashion last night? The Sharks are pissed, and Stoll has a disciplinary hearing with the league today. Complicating matters is that no penalty was called on the play.

It was undeniably dirty, and should have been called even at a time of year when the refs swallow their whistles. But the problem is, fans like when they let them play. No one wants games to be decided by the zebras, and that means a lot of even strength. But what about suspensions? Are they willing to remove a key player from the equation? In the regular season, maybe Stoll gets a game or two. In the playoffs, normally I'd say nothing happens. But with the recent crackdown, who the hell knows? And that's kind of the problem under Colin Campbell: no one has any idea what he's thinking from case to case, perhaps not even him.

UPDATE: One game suspension for Stoll.