After a thorough review of the video, I can find no basis to impose supplemental discipline. This hit resulted from a play that evolved and then happened very quickly -- with both players skating in the same direction and with Chara attempting to angle his opponent into the boards. I could not find any evidence to suggest that, beyond this being a correct call for interference, that Chara targeted the head of his opponent, left his feet or delivered the check in any other manner that could be deemed to be dangerous.

This was a hockey play that resulted in an injury because of the player colliding with the stanchion and then the ice surface. In reviewing this play, I also took into consideration that Chara has not been involved in a supplemental discipline incident during his 13-year NHL career.

“As long as there’s a sense that it’s part of what happened in a hockey game — it is a violent game, like a football game, terrible things happen — it’s highly unlikely a prosecutor would choose to intervene,” said Alfred Yen, who teaches sports law at Boston College School of Law. “I think only the situation where a prosecutor would be likely to intervene is if somebody, after the whistle blows and play is stopped, and runs up to somebody and just whacks them. That would be different.”

Mike McCann, who is also director of the Sports Law Institute at Vermont Law School and is the legal analyst for Sports Illustrated, said prosecutors in the States usually defer to professional sports leagues like the NHL to mete out punishments in cases that leave athletes marred with concussions or other potential career-ending injuries.

“If you look at Matt Cook and the hit he put on (Bruin) Marc Savard, that was worse,” McCann said, adding that Pittsburgh police passed on charging the Penguins forward. . . .

Noting that Canadian law requires intentional conduct as the basis of an assault charge, McCann commented, “You could argue that a fight is more intentional.”