Downie Fined For Leaving Bench in Anisimov Incident

Damian Cristido at TampaBay.com reports that the Lightning’s Steve Downie was only fined, not suspended, for leaving the Tampa Bay bench to engage Artem Anisimov after the Ranger winger’s “rifle” celebration on Thursday night.

Cristido adds that he did not know how much the fine was but that the max fine is $2,500.

Here’s Downie on the fine…

“It’s what I expected,” Downie said. “It is what it is. You’ve got to respect the decision. It’s not my call but I expect what he did and what he said.”

For the reason why Downie was fined and not suspended click the “Read More” tab below.

Erik Erlendsson at the Tampa Tribune explains that because the NHL deemed Downie was on the ice as result of a legal line change, he was able to avoid the automatic 10-game suspension.

…what a joke. There is no way that was a legal line change. Check it out here:

At the nine second mark you can clearly see Downie just jump on the ice…

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