OK, let me get this straight. This hit by the Blackhawks' Duncan Keith on Vancouver's Daniel Sedin merited a five-game suspension:

Yet, this cheap shot that Nashville's Shea Weber delivered to the head of Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg Wednesday night merited nothing more than a $2,500 fine:

You've gotta be kidding me. These two incidents are quite comparable if you ask me. Both Keith and Weber delivered a reckless shot to another man's head. Aren't these the exact kind of plays the NHL is trying to get rid of? Shouldn't the penalties for these two hits be similar?

I believe they should. Apparently, NHL chief disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan believes otherwise.

I've heard some people say Weber is being given leniency because this is the playoffs. The Keith hit, of course, occurred during the regular season. To me, a bad hit is a bad hit. I don't care whether it happened in the playoffs or the regular season. If the league wants to put a stop to this kind of unnecessary violence, the penalties need to be both harsh and consistent. Instead, we get the usual wishy-washy crap coming out of the league office.

Here's what Shanahan had to say Thursday about the Weber hit:

'This was a reckless and reactionary play on which Weber threw a glancing punch and then shoved Zetterberg's head into the glass. As is customary whenever Supplemental Discipline is being considered, we contacted Detroit following the game and were informed that Zetterberg did not suffer an apparent injury and should be in the lineup for Game 2.''

"Shanny" is full of crap, as usual. So, Weber gets off with a slap on the wrist because Zetterberg wasn't injured? What a bunch of bull. I can only assume Keith was given a harsher penalty than Weber because Sedin was injured and Zetterberg was not. Once again, a bad hit is a bad hit. It shouldn't matter whether the recipient of a cheap shot is able to skate away or not. My argument doesn't change: If the league is serious about eliminating these plays, the penalties must be harsh and consistent.

If the Duncan Keith hit is worth a five-game suspension, then this Shea Weber hit is also worth a five-game suspension.

Weber should be gone the next five games. Instead, he'll be on the ice for Game 2 of the Nashville-Detroit series. That's just ridiculous. The NHL's system of justice makes no sense whatsoever.