Right after Hughes gooned Norris

, there was an Ottawa players and a Canuck player below the goal line and the Ottawa player applied a cross check push to the Canuck player in the back and they rode into the boards normally. It’s a play that happens a couple dozen times in a game. There would have been nothing to see if Norris had a strong stance and hadn’t already blown his cut back. But it happened, so it was a penalty. The only intention Norris might have had was to embellish the injury, but I am not sure he even did that. A face to the dasher falling down is going to sting, and it was of a force the spotters may have sent him back to the locker room no matter what.
Do you remember about 10-15 years ago when Burrows got a cross check from behind into the boards (more severe) and went down like a rented mule laid and then didn’t miss a shift? Led to the ref (dont remember his name, a French Canadian iirc) taking Burrows number and later reportedly telling Burrows he was going to get him. The league circled the wagons as the rumors circulated, but then quietly the ref’s contract was not renewed.
At any rate, I understand the call on Hughes and chalk it up to misfortune more than anything else. If the reffing was to be complained about, it was the refs letting the game get out of control in the third; giving Hoglander the extra two when if anything it should have gone the other way was poor referee game management. At the time of the incident, the Sens had been running guys dangerously in non hockey plays for quite a while in a game that was more or less out of reach. The Sens were rewarded with a power play, thereby signaling that this was the way to play to get back in it. You can discourage it and penalize it at the margins to shut it down, you can “let them play”, but you can’t reward it.