New York Rangers center Mika Zibanejad was ejected from Tuesday night’s game against the Dallas Stars for boarding the Stars’ Radek Faksa.

On Wednesday, the league rescinded the game misconduct penalty, wiping it from Zibanejad’s record.

The game – a Rangers’ 1-0 loss – was long completed. Why bother?

Players receive automatic suspensions after two game misconducts. From Rule 23.6:

23.6 Fines and Suspensions – Physical Fouls Category – In regular season League games, any player who incurs a total of two (2) game misconduct penalties in the “Physical Fouls Category”, before playing in 41 consecutive regular season League games without such penalty, shall be suspended automatically for the next League game of his team. For each subsequent game misconduct penalty, the automatic suspension shall be increased by one game.

Here’s the hit:

The original penalty was not called by either referee Steve Kozari nor Justin St. Pierre, who was positioned nearly 10 feet from the collision. Rather, it was linesman Darren Gibbs who handed out the penalty, as linesmen have the ability to do when the infraction rises to the level of a major.

From 32.4: