Colin Campbell and the NHL got it right this time.
You simply can’t hit an official.
It doesn’t matter if you are dinged, dazed, dazzled or just dumb — you are responsible for your own actions.
Dennis Wideman’s crosscheck to the back of linesman Don Henderson deserves the 20 games Campbell handed him Wednesday — the longest abuse-of-an-official suspension since Tom Lysiak deliberately tripped a linesman after a faceoff in 1983.
As a reference point, look no further than the Dan Carcillo suspension in 2014, which landed him a 10-game expulsion in the playoffs, later reduced to six games.