The National Hockey League is sometimes known better for the fights that happen on the ice than the star players who glide across it night in and night out. It can also be known for the brutal penalties, accidental or not, caused by the players who put their bodies on the line for their team. Such is the recent case with Minnesota Wild forward Charlie Coyle. Just over a week ago, on March 29, Coyle and the Wild were playing the Chicago Blackhawks when Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith, having just been solidly (and legally) checked to the ice by Coyle just under nine and a half minutes into the first period, decided that the proper response to the hit was to swing his stick right into Coyle’s face.

The stick hit Coyle on the nose, rather fortunately causing him nothing more than a black eye and a scratch that required two stitches. For his transgression, Keith received a five-minute major penalty, a game misconduct, and an indefinite suspension that was shifted into a six-game ban on April 1. And for many fans, this penalty was prank enough for the day.

The NHL’s Department of Player Safety (DoPS) has long been considered little more than a joke to hockey bloggers, announcers and serious fans. Created on the first day of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, DoPS was formed to try to ensure league-wide player safety. Even the first week of the 2015-2016 season was wildly inconsistent on DoPS’s part. Before the season could even begin, Raffi Torres, a forward for the San Jose Sharks with four previous suspensions on his record, was given a 41-game suspension for an illegal elbow to the head of Anaheim Ducks’ forward Jakob Silfverberg. The half-season suspension is to date the longest suspension ever handed out by the NHL.

The Department of Player Safety’s attempt to make hockey safer could not even survive opening night in the ‘15-‘16 season. Los Angeles Kings captain and forward Dustin Brown, previously suspended two games for elbowing the Minnesota Wild’s forward Jason Pominville in 2013, head-butted rival Sharks forward Logan Couture less than fifteen minutes into the Kings’ first game of the year. Not only was he not suspended for the hit, he did not even receive a penalty for his actions.

Minnesota Wild players have experienced the downside of this inconsistency in the past on several occasions. New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider was ejected from a 2014 game against the Wild when he checked Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin into the boards, but received no additional discipline for the hit despite Brodin apparently being both knocked unconscious and out of the game. In that same game, Wild forward Erik Haula was elbowed in the head by Rangers defenseman John Moore in the second period and never returned to the game afterwards. Moore was given a five-game suspension for the hit, which serves to further highlight the incomprehensible decision-making of the Department of Player Services.

Returning to recent times, the Keith hit on Coyle saw people immediately calling for the book to be thrown at Keith, who has a history of his own. In fact, according to Adam Gretz of CBS Sports, only five high-stick penalties have drawn suspensions since DoPS was formed. Keith has two of them. Keith had previously been suspended for one game in the 2013 Western Conference Finals for a slash to the face on Kings forward Jeff Carter that resembled the Coyle incident, as well as a five-game suspension for elbowing Vancouver Canucks forward Daniel Sedin in the head in 2012. Despite his history, including a history of perpetrating a similar act against another player and two very nasty high hits that didn’t draw suspensions against other players, Keith only received a six game suspension.

This weak suspension with the Blackhawks already having secured a playoff spot and not necessarily needing Keith in the first place for their five remaining regular season games is ridiculous to say the least. Despite dozens of incidents taking place in the NHL that should probably draw suspensions, there are players that walk free despite causing injury to players, or players that take suspensions that are far too weak for the damage they cause. This should not and cannot be allowed to continue. The NHL absolutely needs to begin looking into setting more uniform punishment guidelines for the Department of Player Safety as soon as possible to keep their system from continuing to confound fans around the world and giving goons and/or talented players who lose their temper quite easily, implied consent to continue to injure players if they feel they can get away with it.