Maple Leafs players are angry with the NHL over what they believe was too few games of suspension — five — for Radko Gudas, after the Ducks captain and defenseman kneed Auston Matthews and ended his season with an MCL injury.

Forward John Taveres said, "I believe Auston's been ruled out for quite a while, right? So it's going to be more than five games, so it easily could've been longer. Can't say five games is nothing, but it could have been longer," 

Forward Matthew Knies agreed: "I think the league could've done a little bit more, seeing as our best player, our captain's not going to be with us for the rest of the year. That's a big loss." 

Head coach Craig Berube, not to be outdone, added, "Looking at it, we lose our guy, our captain for the year. It doesn't seem like enough for me. You lose your star player for the year. The guy doing it is a repeat offender. It just doesn't seem like enough."

My take: Anyone else see the glaring problem here? Everyone is focused on the star-power of the victim and the result of the infraction. Those three men just said out loud that if fourth-line winger Calle Jarnkrok went down, they'd be fine with the five games. No! Suspend the action, not the result. Gudas should get five or more games because he recklessly kneed an opposing player. Period. I don't care if Matthews or a fourth-line winger got lucky and missed just a shift with a charley horse. Punish the action severely and this stuff starts to go away.