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In the closing minutes of a 2012 game between the Pirates and the Tiger-Cats, MacIsaac — a Tiger-Cat — allegedly jumped into the air with arms raised and delivered a swift blow to opponent Drew Casterton.

Casterton, a personal trainer, lost both of his front teeth and suffered a concussion. Still plagued by debilitating headaches, Casterton told the court that he remains unable to work more than six hours per week.

MacIsaac and his lawyer, however, have argued that Casterton had the puck at the time — and that the collision was an unavoidable accident.

Although MacIsaac was convicted and sentenced to 18 months’ probation, the ruling was thrown into doubt when appeal judges noted that the decision was peppered with Ontario Court Justice Diane Lahaie’s own biases about hockey strategy.

For one, Tiger-Cat Ryan Robinson claimed to have been in the game when the collision occurred, but the judge rejected his testimony because he would have been one of three defencemen on the ice at the time.

Wrote Lahaie, “it was not logical that three Tiger-Cats defencemen would be on the ice in the last minute of the game when the Tiger-Cats were down by two goals.”

In fact, teams in the Ottawa Senior Men’s league typically sent out their best players in a game’s final minutes, without regard to position.

The judge also made another assumption about defencemen to reject a key claim from MacIsaac that he had accidentally smashed into Casterton while making a play for the Pirates’ net.