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That鈥檚 the early lesson of these playoffs. Whether you鈥檙e Sasha Barkov, John Tavares or Jake Guentzel, the league won鈥檛 be responsible for making sure you鈥檙e not the target of cheap and dirty hits.

In fact, you sort of get the feeling the NHL digs this stuff. And thinks it sells.

In extreme cases, the league might take limited action. That鈥檚 what happened when Barkov, the Florida captain, was blindsided by Tampa鈥檚 Brandon Hagel in Game 2 of the Lightning-Panthers series. The puck was nowhere in sight, but Hagel took his free shot at Florida鈥檚 best player. Barkov, stunned, left the game, and for that Hagel got the immense extra discipline of a one-game ban.

In Bettman鈥檚 world, that amounts to massive playoff punishment. The same commissioner who once kicked Dale Hunter out of the playoffs with a 21-game suspension for injuring Pierre Turgeon now views even minor post-season discipline as avoidable if at all possible. Indeed, were Hunter to hit Turgeon today as he did back in the 鈥�93 playoffs, it鈥檚 difficult to imagine him getting more than two or three games.

What Bettman once frowned upon, he now embraces.

Matthew Tkachuk, meanwhile, took his run at Guentzel late in Game 3 of the Tampa-Florida series with the game already out of reach in Tampa鈥檚 favour. It was similar, if not identical, to Hagel鈥檚 blindside shot at Barkov. The biggest difference was that while Hagel was a small man jumping to hit a bigger opponent when he wasn鈥檛 expecting it, Tkachuk was a good-sized player hitting an opponent of about the same stature when he wasn鈥檛 expecting it. Tkachuk didn鈥檛 have to jump to deliver the dirty blow that sent Guentzel spinning to the ice, smashing his face on the frozen pond.

It was a revenge hit. Tkachuk was obviously getting even for the Barkov incident and figured that, with the game already decided, it was a perfect time to get sneaky. He was booted out of the game, but who cares at that point? In fact, on the ensuing faceoff giant Florida blueliner Niko Mikkola went after Tampa superstar Nikita Kucherov. Florida, having lost, wanted its pound of flesh.

Tkachuk was nonetheless cleared by the NHL of any wrongdoing on Sunday. This incident had all the worst elements: a dangerous blindside hit delivered when the game was no longer in question, as retribution for a previous incident. But still the Bettman administration looked the other way.

Then came the Tavares incident. The Maple Leafs veteran was knocked out of the overtime session on Saturday night against Ottawa via a cheap-shot elbow to the face by Artem Zub. The fact that Zub鈥檚 elbow went completely undetected and unpenalized was shocking. A key component of Toronto鈥檚 power play was sent to the dressing room to regain his senses as the Leafs looked for a goal to eliminate Ottawa.

When the Senators got the next goal to stay alive, Zub鈥檚 handiwork looked all the more crucial to the Ottawa cause. Well done.

The best you can say for Zub is that he is not known as a dirty, or even physical, player. But what about Tkachuk? He鈥檚 one of the league鈥檚 biggest shift disturbers, along with being one of its best players, and is constantly crossing the line in terms of sportsmanship and fair play.

So, how does he get away with that hit? And does the fact he skated without a suspension mean the Leafs can now seek revenge on Zub?

The larger conclusion here is that the league isn鈥檛 interested in protecting its best players, and believes that fans want a game in which top stars can be targeted. Once a garage league, always a garage league.

The other noteworthy characteristic of the playoffs so far, of course, is the 鈥淪lap Shot鈥� element of the game, when the nonsense gets utterly cartoonish. That was obviously the case in Game 3 between the Washington Capitals and Montreal Canadiens on Friday night, when Josh Anderson and Tom Wilson took their well-established feud to a new level by ridiculously fighting on the benches at the end of the second period.

The NHL鈥檚 response? Nothing. A shrug. When the league takes no action, you have to assume it condones the actions of its athletes.

You get the feeling Bettman and Co. loved the reaction they got back in February, after three idiotic fights that started the Canada-U.S. preliminary-round game during the 4 Nations Face-Off. Where once you might have heard the commissioner suggest this is not what the league wants to showcase its product, these days it certainly seems the NHL wants to distinguish itself by the level of violence it permits, 聽particularly when that violence is visited upon its top players.