It's important to make a distinction between what happens in a professional or upper level amateur hockey game and what goes on (or should go on) in a men's C/D non check beer league at the local rink. There is a world of difference.
The fact of the matter is that there was NO EXCUSE for what Coach McDonald did. None. Everyone here seems to have their orange tinted sunglasses on when it comes to viewing this situation. He sucker punched a guy 100 feet away from the play in a freakin' beer league game because he felt the guy was cherry picking late in a blowout. Sure, I am sure they exchanged some words, maybe a slash or jab here or there, but there is NO EXCUSE for his actions. NONE. It is behavior that is completely unacceptable for someone in his position.
He is fortunate that the school tried to sweep this matter quickly under the rug, hoping that no one would notice or that the matter would quickly pass without the victim deciding to file criminal charges. A 1 game suspension, for a game against a team that quite frankly is probably the worst team in women's hockey was hardly sufficient punishment for these actions. AD Spiotti and President Destler had a chance to send a real message to the community about the standards and expectations RIT has of its coaches and student athletes and quite frankly they dropped the ball. You can bet your last dollar that if this was a student athlete involved in an altercation, he would have been suspended and punished in a much more severe fashion. Hell, players have gotten more of a punishment for curfew violations than what he got for ASSAULTING a person, and getting hauled out of an arena in handcuffs in a sheriff's car.
At a time when RIT is trying to make deeper in-roads to the community at large and grow the RIT brand and promote the RIT hockey program, trying to raise funds from the community for a new arena and on the verge of taking the Women's program to DI, this is not the type of attention the school needs and they in some was have become their own worst enemy with the joke of a punishment handed to Coach McDonald.
If a guy is taken away by the fuzz in bracelets, there might just be some cause for concern. Besides, retaliation to any degree in something like a cheesy beer league game is just plain irresponsible for a guy in his position. You can't have any witnesses to this sort of thing. 
