It seemed to take an awfully long time for NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to come to what seems to be a most logical conclusion: Dennis Wideman's 20-game suspension for crushing unsuspecting linesman Don Henderson from behind was in fact a just and fair punishment for an unusual act of violence against an official.
It will become a footnote in this curious tale that it took a full week from the time of the Calgary Flames defenseman's appeal hearing to the time a ruling was announced by the commissioner. What won't be forgotten is that Bettman stood behind the original ruling reinforcing that this act -- whatever the circumstances, however foggy Wideman might have been from a hit taken moments before -- is indefensible.