NHL Player Safety Makes Decision On Dmitry Kulikov's Elbow to Mitch Marner

Although Game 5 came with some punishment for Max Domi courtesy of a fine for his hit on Aleksander Barkov, it could have had a lot more with all the scattered incidents and violence that erupted throughout the game.

We had Oliver Ekman-Larsson lay out Evan Rodrigues for several minutes, then we also saw Matthew Tkachuk threaten Bobby McMann with a throat slash; something that warrants a second look.

But none is more egregious than the elbow to the head of Mitch Marner thanks to defenseman Dmitry Kulikov.

Marner ended up being alright and not getting seriously injured, but it's just one of several times that Florida should have been penalized.

So far, Florida has avoided punishment and that record keeps on rolling, as the league handed out zero repercussions to Kulikov for the headshot.

Chalk it up to either the NHL's favoritism or the officials are dealing with a spot of blindness, but the amount of attacks towards Toronto's players has to be taken into consideration.

It's surprising too, given how the Player Safety Department had no issues delivering a two-game suspension to Kulikov for a headshot last March, which should warrant an automatic review of the hit.

From the Ottawa series it started with John Tavares getting knocked silly by Artem Zub, as well as Anthony Stolarz getting run into with intent to wipe out his legs courtesy of Ridly Greig, and it continued into the second round.

Sam Bennett decided to injure his old teammate and take him out, Matthew Tkachuk took a swing at Mitch Marner, and Rodrigues isn't completely innocent either, again going after Tavares.

Aaron Ekblad was suspended twice this season, Bennett has been suspended before; there's proof they aren't bulletproof but against Toronto they seemingly are.

But if we look at the results, only Toronto so far has been punished. It's only a fine, sure, but the NHL is consistently making life harder for the Maple Leafs, and proving that they aren't really concerned with player safety.

If a player ends up injured again at the hands of a Florida player, the writing is on the wall when it comes to how the league feels about the Maple Leafs.

Toronto isn't going to be given any favors, and Kulikov's blatant elbow being ignored is just the latest strike against the NHL's most profitable franchise.