Buffalo Sabres’ John Scott ejected after head shot on Bruins’ Loui Eriksson (Video)

The NHL Department of Player Safety had an open-and-shut case when it suspended Ryan Garbutt of the Dallas Stars for five games after a head-shot on Dustin Penner.

One assumes Brendan Shanahan and crew will have an equally easy time on this head-shot from John Scott of the Buffalo Sabres on Loui Eriksson of the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night, which earned Scott a game misconduct:

Somewhere, Phil Kessel trembled thinking what might have been …

Scott was given a 5-minute major for charging, a game misconduct and then a 5-minute major for fighting when Adam McQuaid arrived to avenge Eriksson. All of this went down at 5:49 of the third period, with Boston holding a 4-2 lead.

Eriksson didn’t return in the game.

It’s a deplorable hit, and one that the NHL will punish without a second thought. It’s hard to imagine it won’t be above five games; that it could be in the neighborhood of Pat Kaleta’s 10 games isn’t out of the question.

What say you? How many games?