Weekly Reader: NHL Department of Player Safety must stay consistent

It's become a ritual in the age of digital fandom: We watch a playoff game. We watch a dangerous play, or potentially dangerous play, occur in that game. We rush to our various enclaves of social media to re-watch that play, observing available angles and soaking in the conclusions of the partisan observers. And then we wait to see if the raging debate will simmer hot enough for the NHL Department of Player Safety to take it on as a case, for the purposes of a suspension.

The thing about this postseason: This ritual seems to be happening a lot, sometimes multiple times in the same game. Part of this is the "what-about-ism" that occurs when a player has done something suspension-worthy and…