Well, lets take this to the level of the absurd.  You posit:

> But
> to answer your
> question more directly, it makes sense they can add on but not reduce
> penalties, in so much as there are many possible offenses
> which cannot be fully
> penalized under the on-ice rules. Say someone pulls a Happy
> Gilmore and attacks
> someone with a skate blade. The on-ice officials can kick him
> out, but such an
> act would likely warrent further discipline beyond the reach
> of a ref's
> jurisdiction.
>
> However, if you start reducing penalites called by on-ice
> officials, you are in
> effect overruling their judgement calls after the fact, and
> that opens up a
> whole new can of worms as any on-ice call could then be
> subject to review.
>
Suppose you give out a 5 minute major and DQ for slashing someones face with your stick (say the blade goes up under the mask, or the helmet just fell off) but a tape reveals the stick never touched the face - the cut occured when the player tripped and hit the boards with his face and the angle the ref was at made it look like stickwork.  Or someone is given a game DQ which carries a penalty of sitting out the next game for maliciously hitting someone in the head with a stick during a madhouse skirmish but tapes later reveal it was a different player who did that.  In both cases, its not a judgment call, its a mistake.  But the rule as stated now would not allow that mistake to be corrected and the non-guilty player still gets the game suspension.

Yes, it does open a whole can of worms.  If that is your argument, then you are entitled to that POV - but its an argument based on convenience, not one based on justice.  I would not want to see cavalier reversal of on-ice calls, but when a mistake is clearly made, I also would want to be able to at least limit the fallout from that mistake by being able to life the automatic game suspension.  Not that either of these is the case here; I did start out by suggesting we look at the absurd extreme.

I also like the idea of a penalty for negligent play - playing with reckless abandon to the safety of other players - as a major penalty add-on to a minor infraction.  But I still object to the way the rule is stated concerning "attempt to injure" and to the level of suspension handed out in this particular case.

TR