Panthers’ Sam Bennett Punished for Drew O’Connor Incident
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced Saturday that it had fined Sam Bennett of the Florida Panthers $5,000 for roughing the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Drew O’Connor during Friday’s game.
The incident happened at 17:55 of the third period of the Penguins’ 3-2 shootout loss at Florida. Bennett received a roughing minor penalty at the time.
The $5,000 is the maximum fine allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
O’Connor had no points in the game after breaking a 32-game goal drought by scoring twice in the previous game, a 4-2 loss at Detroit.
Sam Bennett with a costly penalty that leads to Pens tying goal 😬
Pittsburgh commentators compare the play to Bennett’s punch on Marchand in the playoffs 😳 pic.twitter.com/AZsP0yeu4H
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) January 4, 2025
Categorized:Penguins
That was very sneaky. I am glad the referees caught that.
Earlier in the period, DOC knocked down Bennett from behind. It wasn’t vicious, but I noticed Bennett looked over his shoulder and took DOC’s #. So he picked his spot to retaliate and got caught.
2 thought: I’d love to have Bennett on the Pens. But message sent…DOC will now know that Bennett doesn’t take any sh*t.