The Kraken's Ville Ottavainen was fined the maximum Friday afternoon for his part in Thursday night's altercation with Calgary's Brennan Othmann.
The NHL Department of Player Safety docked the Seattle defenseman $2,190.72, the ceiling allowed under the CBA. The league flagged him as the aggressor.
Big number? Not really. Next to an NHL paycheque, it lands like a parking ticket outside the rink, annoying for an afternoon and paid before the next practice.
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The box score from Seattle's 4-3 shootout win tells its own story. Ottavainen finished with 17 penalty minutes in only 10:23 of ice time.
That's a blue liner who spent a big chunk of his night staring at the glass from the box. Two shots on goal made up the rest of his line.
Othmann didn't let any of it derail his night. The Flames forward picked up two assists, one of them on the power play, while collecting 12 penalty minutes of his own.
Kraken and Flames meet twice in the first four days
And here's where it gets interesting. Seattle opens its regular season October 1 in Calgary, then turns around and hosts the Flames on October 4.
These two clubs meet four times by November 4. Nobody in either locker room is going to need a reminder of Thursday.
Don't expect the Calgary winger to forget who wore the aggressor tag. He played 12:14 and still found a way to drive the offense.
Curtis Douglas also piled up 12 penalty minutes for the Kraken in 5:21. Bobby McMann scored and took five penalty minutes on the same night. This one had an edge.
Lane Lambert got the result anyway. Philipp Grubauer stopped 32 of 35 shots, and Seattle pushed its run to 3-0-0 before the games start to count.
Calgary slipped to 1-1-1 over that stretch. Ryan Huska's group heads to Edmonton on Saturday while the Kraken visit Vancouver the same night.
Here's the problem with the ruling. It's the right call and it's also toothless, because a sum this size doesn't make anyone think twice before dropping the gloves next time.
The bigger cost for the Seattle defender might be the depth chart. Brandon Montour logged 28:10 on the same blue line Thursday.
Every minute Ottavainen spent in the box was a minute he couldn't use to push for more of those shifts. Coaches notice that kind of math.
So which version of this matchup shows up October 1? Lambert will want the edge without the extra trips to the box. Calgary might just want a receipt.
Should the NHL have suspended Ville Ottavainen instead of stopping at a fine?
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