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Chiarot Fined, Not Suspended
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Photo credit: © Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
Art Middleton
Nov 25, 2017, 13:26 EST
Ben Chiarot handed out some punishment on Friday when he jammed the butt end of his stick into the chin of Anaheim Ducks forward Corey Perry. Now the NHL has handed out its punishment to Chiarot in the form of a fine, but somewhat surprisingly no actual suspension.
The incident occurred during the third period of the Jets game against the Ducks when Chiarot and Perry got into a scuffle behind the Jets net.
An argument can be made that Chiarot was simply defending himself as Perry was clearly aiming for a headshot of his own, but the truth is a player is responsible for his stick and while you can debate that the action was inadvertent, it still did some damage…
In the end, the NHL department of player safety decided a maximum fine was the way to go, likely factoring in that Chiarot has no previous discipline history and that Chiarot had been cross-checked from behind leading to the scrum where Perry had dropped his stick to engage with Ben.
While no one likes to see injuries happen on the ice, Jets fans – as well as a good majority of the hockey community – was perhaps a little less compassionate for a player who has been known to dish out a handful of cheap shots and dirty tactics over the years.
Other fans wanted to point out that there seemed to be punishment missing from Perry’s stick slash of Matthieu Perreault last season…