Ryan Bayda Fined $2,500 for Match Penalty, No Suspension

The NHL's new hard-line stance on message-sending and late-game fisticuffs seems to have lasted, oh, about two weeks. Late in the third period of Pittsburgh's 7-4 win on Thursday, Carolina's Ryan Bayda was involved in a line brawl of sorts that featured Bayda delivering what appeared to be a cross-check to the face of Kris Letang.

In the end, Miroslav Satan fought Patrick Eaves, Tim Gleason fought Letang, and Bayda was issued a match penalty for intent to injure. By rule, Bayda was immediately suspended from further competition pending a league review. That review has taken place, and Bayda walks away with a $2,500 fine and no suspension.

NHL.com's Dan Rosen has the story, including this from Letang on the incident: "There was a little frustration, but it was not a hard one," Letang said, adding that he was just trying to defend himself and didn't "want to throw any punch or get injured in those types of things at the end of the game."

In case you missed it, here's brawl in its entirety.



Earlier this postseason, Boston's Milan Lucic received a match penalty and was suspended for game 3 of the Bruins' series against Montreal for cross-checking Maxim Lapierre in the head during a late-game scrap, which preceded Mike Komisarek returning the favor to Lucic later in the series (with no suspension ... not that it would have mattered, the series was over anyway).

Meanwhile, Philadelphia's Daniel Carcillo was issued a one-game suspension for hitting Pittsburgh's Max Talbot over the head following a faceoff, while Calgary's Mike Cammalleri was issued a two-minute minor (and no additional punishment from the league) for doing the exact same thing to Chicago's Martin Havlat.

What's it all add up to? Inconsistency!

Once again, the issue here isn't the fact the plays in question resulted in suspensions or didn't result in suspensions, it's that some of them did, and some of them didn't ... if that makes any sense. All we're looking for here is some consistency. If one late-game cross-check to the head -- resulting in a match penalty -- is worthy of a suspension, shouldn't all of them be worthy of a suspension? Crazy thought.