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Having grown up in St. Louis as a big Blues fan, I remember the trade that brought Chris Pronger to town (for Brendan Shanahan, who could have run for mayor at the time) and watching him become a dominating force on the blue line. His passing skills are unreal, and at 6′6″ plus stick, Pronger’s “wingspan” makes him a nightmare for opposing forwards (and likely Jay Bilas’s favorite hockey player). That said, over his career he’s always been surrounded by controversy, and, to put it mildly, isn’t afraid to mix it up a little. To put it less mildly, Pronger has a fairly deep and easily aroused dirty streak. So it’s no surprise to see that people were up in arms after Pronger appeared to stomp on Vancouver’s Ryan Kessler during the second period of Anaheim’s 4-1 win over the Canucks Wednesday night at the Pond. There will, however, be no suspension from the league for the incident.

Look, would it shock me to find out that Pronger did it on purpose? No. After all, he’s frequently (and deservedly) on the radar of the NHL’s disciplinary overlords. But should Pronger have been suspended here? Take a look at the video below, but like TSN’s Bob McKenzie and the folks at The Battle of California, I think the bigwigs got this one right. There’s just no way to determine if the act was intentional, and to suspend a guy on reputation in the stretch drive of an incredibly tight playoff race in the Western Conference seems a little extreme.

But take a look, and decide for yourself. The evidence (especially when compared to the much more blatantly malicious Chris Simon version that cost him 25 games) seems a little thin.

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