Today In NHL History - Pronger Stomps Kesler

On March 12th in 2008, blueliner Chris Pronger of the Anaheim Ducks stomped his skate blade on the calf of Vancouver Canucks forward Ryan Kesler in an awesome display of unsportsmanlike behavior, further cementing his reputation as one of the elite cheapshots in the NHL.

Upon initial review of the unpenalized play, NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell failed to see what Canucks color commentator Tom Larsheid described, and chose not to suspend the Hart and Norris winner.

A better angle surfaced the next day and Pronger was suspended for the 8th time, this time for 8 games. Interestingly, the sentence was far less than the 30 games Chris Simon received for a similar act against Jarkko Ruutu a year earlier, a discrepancy bemoaned by Simon.

The Ducks beat the Canucks that night by a score of 4-1.

That's today in NHL history.