Nikita Zadorov punished by NHL Player Safety as Bruins avoid bigger blow

Nikita Zadorov gave Marco Sturm the break Boston badly needed when the NHL stopped at a fine and kept him off the suspension list.

The league fined Zadorov $5,000 on Sunday for cross-checking Buffalo captain Rasmus Dahlin.

That was the maximum allowed under the CBA, and that was the end of it.

For the Bruins, that's the part that matters.

Money never changes a lineup card.

A suspension does, and Boston avoided the kind of hit that would have forced Sturm into an unwanted blue-line shuffle.

That's a real escape for a team already under pressure in this series.

Buffalo pushed Boston to the brink with a 4-1 win in Game 4 on Saturday, so there was no room for another problem on the back end.

The play itself was rough enough to get people around the league talking right away.

Dahlin was in a vulnerable spot, the cross-check came in high, and the sequence looked like one that could have brought a hearing.

That's why the ruling landed with some noise. The NHL reviewed it, hit Zadorov with the biggest fine it could issue without a suspension, and moved on.

Boston gets the best possible outcome with Zadorov fine

From Boston's side, this is about availability more than discipline.

Zadorov can still take his regular minutes, stay in the pairs, and let Sturm keep some order on the bench.

That matters even more this late in April.

Teams already chasing a series don't want to lean harder on depth defenders or start forcing fresh matchups on the fly.

Zadorov has always played with bite, and that edge is part of why teams want him when the games tighten up. But it also keeps Player Safety close when he steps over it.

Buffalo won't love this outcome, and it's easy to see why.

Dahlin drives so much of what the Sabres do that a lot of people will look at this play and say the standard for a suspension stayed high.

Boston won't spend much time apologizing for it. Once the incident went under review, the Bruins got the softest serious outcome available, and Sturm gets to keep his blue line intact for the next puck drop.