Typically, when the NHL doles out discipline to its multifarious wrongdoers, many are left scratching their heads at the inconsistency of the rulings. There's always a player that did something very similar, and received a punishment very different.

But you have to hand it to the league. When it comes to biting, they've been incredibly consistent over the past few years. They never do anything.

That in mind, it should come as no surprise that the NHL has decided not to discipline Toronto Maple Leafs' centre Mikhail Grabovski for his alleged bite to Max Pacioretty of the Montreal Canadiens due to inconclusive evidence. From the NHL:

Following a telephone hearing conducted this morning, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety has decided not to assess Supplemental Discipline to Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mikhail Grabovski for an incident that occurred during NHL Game No. 160 Saturday night in Montreal.

After interviewing both players involved in the incident and reviewing all of the available video and medical reports, the League could not determine conclusively that Grabovski bit Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty.

The Department of Player Safety has concluded that there was not sufficient evidence to support imposing Supplemental Discipline.

The medical reports, if you're wondering, were the pictures of Pacioretty's bitten thumb and wrist that the Canadiens sent to the league, as well as, most likely, evidence of the antibiotics and tetanus shot that Pacioretty received afterward. Clearly, the only aspect of the incident for which Pacioretty felt there was "not sufficient evidence" was the question of whether or not Grabovski had rabies.

(Ed Note: Writer Michael Traeger lives in Pittsburgh and is a staff writer for the Pittsburgh media website Benstonium.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @PolemicLicense. Anyone interested in contributing an article or column to the blog can pitch yo stuff here. Now, here's Michael...)

by Michael Traeger

The 2012-2013 NHL season marks the twentieth anniversary of the release of EA Sports’ NHL 93, a title considered by many to be amongst the greatest hockey video games ever made.

In honor of NHL 93 and of all of the hockey greats that have come since, here are the top 10 greatest hockey video game players of all time.

10 | Jaromir Jagr – NHL Hockey 2001 (2000, EA Sports)

Everything about Jaromir Jagr in NHL 2001 was destined for greatness. From his unstoppable dekes to his pinpoint shot accuracy, the ageless Jagr dominates every facet of the game.

Trying to check Jagr results in defenders hovering in midair like Wile E. Coyote, and his slapshots flatten even the game’s best goaltenders, leading to easy rebound goals.

CPU-controlled Jagr is particularly devastating. When playing against the Penguins, it’s not unusual for Jagr to dance through all of your defenders and then whistle a wrist shot past your net minder from sixty feet out.

His ridiculous ability aside, the real reason Jaromir Jagr rises to the top of the 2001 player universe is his Mullet.

If Jagr’s player rating was a 93, then his Mullet is an easy 207. It’s completely conceivable (if not downright likely) that 1980’s Bon Jovi stepped inside the EA Sports studio to serve as Jagr’s hair model, only to have the game’s graphic budget run dry, which in turn forced the designers to render Jagr’s amazing mullet into a mortal two dimensions.

Then, in what has to be one of the all-time great decisions by upper-management, EA Sports decided that the mullet had to stay, regardless of how terrible his painted-on hair looked.

The Chicago Blackhawks saw an impressively lengthy streak come to an end Sunday night in Nashville.

No, it wasn't their regulation unbeaten streak, which was at 11 games coming into the tilt versus the Predators, and reached 12 games after a 3-0 win. The answer lies in the goals against column, which remained at zero for the first time in 630 days.

Prior to blanking the Predators, you had to go back two seasons to find the Blackhawks' last shutout, a 5-0 rout of the Vancouver Canucks on April 21, 2011. (And if you aren't counting playoffs, it reached even further back, to March 23 of that year.) It was long enough for the launch of Did The Blackhawks Get A Shutout?, inspired by the site that tracked Scott Gomez's goalless drought last season.

The site finally got its chance to answer in the affirmative Sunday, and that's a screengrab of the moment at the top of this page. (I have censored out the profane exclamation of surprise at the bottom, in respect to Family Day here in British Columbia).

Yes, the Chicago Blackhawks finally kept a team off the board, but of course they did. Considering the tear they're on to open the season, the way they seem to be having their way night after night, you knew it was only a matter of time before they rent the veil of shutoutlessness and put an end to that streak.

And don't think that, just because the Blackhawks have another, sexier streak in progress, Corey Crawford and co. weren't giving much thought to ending this one. "Come on," Crawford told the Chicago Tribune. "I knew. I knew. With around five minutes left I didn't want to think about it too much, but I knew about it."

But what about that other streak, the 12-game unbeaten one? How long until that one sees its conclusion?

Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.

Over the summer, most teams in the Northeast Division took part in the very odd trend of trying to muscle up as a means of competing with the Boston Bruins.

The Sabres signed slugger-not-a-skater John Scott and traded big ol' softie Derek Roy for rough and ready Steve Ott. Montreal backed a dump truck full of money and years into Brandon Prust's driveway for somewhat mystifying reasons. The Maple Leafs added borderline guys with lots of penalty minutes like Mark Fraser and Frazer McLaren (though the latter was claimed on waivers a few weeks ago). The Senators didn't do any of that, and good for them.

But isn't it funny that the most embarrassing period of any game this season came as a direct result of trying to keep up with Boston's toughness, but did not in any way involve the Bruins? It came, instead, in a game involving Montreal, which is odd considering that apart from Prust, the number of Canadiens you'd expect to get involved in any sort of rough stuff can more or less be counted on zero fingers.

But on a team of roughnecks built — not altogether successfully — with "truculence" and "being tough to play against" in mind, who would have thought that Nazem Kadri, of all people, would be the one that ended up sparking the whole mess? It was Kadri who railroaded Alexei Emelin with a good, hard, clean hit as the Habs defenseman, who was wearing a full cage after being hit in the face with a puck last month, tried to clear the zone.

As the puck went down the ice, and created a scoring opportunity for the Habs, Dion Phaneuf came back and committed a penalty, which would have given Montreal a power play.

Instead, Prust, in an attempt to get back at the team whose player had just crushed his teammate, threw a gloved punch and negated the opportunity before it even started. Things devolved from there, in no way helped by the fact that Toronto was also creaming Montreal on their home ice. As the lead grew from 3 goals to 4 to 5 to 6, it got uglier and uglier, and the final 20 minutes in particular stood as being particularly pathetic and unflattering for all involved.

Getty ImagesThe 2014 Sochi Olympic Games are a little under a year away and on Sunday the men's hockey qualification finally came to an end.

Already qualified were USA, Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Norway. September and November featured two separate pre-qualifying tournaments that led to the final set of games this past week that determined the last three spots in the Sochi tournament.

In the end it would be good news for the likes of Thomas Vanek, Michael Grabner and Anze Kopitar, among others, as Austria, Latvia and Slovenia would qualify.

The Austrians only needed a single point from their game against Germany and got it in a 3-2 overtime loss. Germany will miss out on the Olympic hockey tournament for the first time since 1952. Austria returns for the first time since Salt Lake in 2002.

Latvia (Hail Arturs Irbe!) also lost 3-2 in overtime, but the point was enough for them to qualify for their fourth straight Games. The team is coached by former Jack Adams Award winner Ted Nolan and features former NHLer Sandis Ozolinsh on defense. Here's what the celebrations were like in Riga:

Slovenia won their opening two games against Belarus and Denmark and that was enough for them to qualify for the first time. Anze Kopitar's brother played in the qualifying tournament and the team is coached by their father. Upon learning of the good news, Kopitar was ecstatic, even though he didn't watch, according to LA Kings Insider Jon Rosen:

“There was a live stream. I just didn’t want to watch it, because usually if I watch it, I’m too nervous, or something not good is happening. I just stayed away from it and then told my mom – she was watching it – and I told her, ‘when it’s all said and done, just shoot me a text, either ‘yes’ or a ‘no’.’ That was pretty much it.”

Now that all 12 teams are officially in place for the Sochi tournament, the groups are now set. From the IIHF:

Group A: Russia, Slovakia, USA, Slovenia
Group B: Finland, Canada, Norway, Austria
Group C: Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, Latvia

The full set of games is scheduled, for now, to be released sometime in May.

The NHL, NHLPA, IIHF and IOC have yet to hammer out a deal for the league to send its players to Sochi, but things are leaning that way. The sides will meet later this week in hopes of getting closer to a resolution.

Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_Leahy

Getty ImagesNo. 1 Star: Jimmy Howard, Detroit Red Wings

A wild final minute saw the Red Wings lose their lead and then take it back for good during a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings. Alec Martinez pounced on a rebound in front to tie the game with 53 seconds to go, then Jonathan Ericsson's shot squeaked through Jonathan Quick's pads with five seconds remaining to give the Red Wings the win. Howard was stellar making 45 saves, including 23 in the second period for his sixth win. One of his 45 saves included this pad stop on Dustin Brown late in the first:

No. 2 Star: David Clarkson, New Jersey Devils

Clarkson kept up his scoring pace by netting two to give him five in five games as the Devils swept a weekend home-and-home series versus the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 3-1 win. He now has nine goals this season. Johan Hedberg made 23 saves as the Devils won their fifth in a row.

No. 3 Star: Carl Hagelin, New York Rangers

Hagelin needed just 31 seconds to open the scoring and added his second of the night midway through the second period as the Rangers routed the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1. He'd add an assist late in the third on Rick Nash's third of the season for a three-point night. Henrik Lundqvist made 19 saves.

Vanek (Getty)

Thomas Vanek scored his 11th on the year yesterday, his 11th in 11 games as the Sabres beat the New York Islanders. Even as Buffalo now sit at 5-6-1 and last place in the Northeast Division, the Austrian has been the league's most productive player this season.

He's leading the league in scoring with 11 goals and 23 points, topping both categories with breathing room in both. He's also been on the ice for 27 goals for his club, and 20 of those at even strength. Both of those marks top the league as well, as Vanek has played heavy minutes on a less-than-impressive Buffalo roster, carrying a first line with him, Cody Hodgson and Jason Pominville to some early season individual success.

As noted, though, the Sabres are two games below .500, (5-6-1 really means 5-7, no matter what Gary Bettman tries to tell me) and have been getting poor play from the rest of their lineup. While the team's top line has 22 goals already on the season, the remaining Sabres' combined have eight. Despite Steve Ott and John Scott being as tough as they were advertised in the offseason, the Sabres just can't buy a break: Ryan Miller is 20th in the early going among NHL starters in even strength save percentage at .911, well below his own individual career norms.

On Friday night, the East Coast Musicians hockey team was set to face off with the Canso Academy (Nova Scotia) students and staff for a fundraiser game to benefit the school.

During the event, there were three opportunities to hit a shot from just beyond center ice to win $5,000. One chance was taken by 9-year old Tyson Greencorn, who plays for Canso's atom squad.

Tyson's shot started off not the way he wanted, by slipping just as he released the puck, but the ending was perfect:

Did the little slip actually help him? We may never know. But he's now a local legend in Canso, and also a tad bit richer.

So what's a 9-year old boy to do with $5,000?

Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_Leahy