DoPS makes decision on Jani Hakanpaa's knee-on-knee hit on Drew Doughty

Defenceman Jani Hakanpaa of the Dallas Stars appears to have dodged a bullet. Hakanpaa was given a five minute major and a game misconduct Friday night after a brutal looking knee-on-knee hit on Drew Doughty of the LA Kings.

Doughty would need help getting off the ice, and initial reports suggest he will miss some time. However, it looks like the NHL's Department of Player Safety has deemed the incident an unfortunate accident and not anything intentional on Hakanpaa's part.

"Told that Jani Hakanpaa will not have supplemental discipline for kneeing Drew Doughty, as he did not extend his knee in any way and kept his same position throughout the hit," said Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas News.

This is the right call in all fairness. There didn't seem to be anything intentional on Hakanpaa's part here. Following the game, he apologized to Doughty for the incident.

"I wish he's going to be back soon. Such a great player, just for the case of his teammates and all the fans watching hockey, I'm really, really sorry about him going down like that," said Hakanpaa.

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