It would seem that Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Radko Gudas has caught a major break in the squirt-gate incident. The National Hockey League has officially rescinded the Game Misconduct Penalty that Gudas received just over halfway through the second period on Sunday against the Panthers.

Apr 14, 2013; Buffalo, NY, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Radko Gudas (75) during the game against the Buffalo Sabres at the First Niagara Center. Sabres beat the Lightning 3-1. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports

The news was first broke on Twitter via Damian Cristodero of the Tampa Bay Times and Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune.

By now, we have all heard about what has become known as squirt-gate. In case you haven’t, here is a quick breakdown of the sequence of events.

Lightning defenseman Radko Gudas had fallen to the ice after slamming into the boards. While Gudas still laid on the ice preparing to get up, Panthers left wing Scottie Upshall decided it was a good idea, obviously the most mature course of action, to take his water bottle and squirt Gatorade at Gudas.

While I will contend that Gudas’ reaction may not have been the best course of action after that; however, think about it from his prospective. You just slammed into the boards, you’re probably not feeling too hot at the moment, you are trying to get yourself back together to get back into the game, and someone decides to act like they are 12 and start squirting you with things…I mean, really?

As Gudas made it to his feet, words were exchanged, and then Gudas slammed his stick into the boards, breaking it in two. He didn’t make contact with any of the players and no one was injured from the incident; however, Gudas was assessed with 22 minutes in penalties for the incident; Upshall sat pretty with 2.

Gudas received a 2 minute minor for Slashing, a 10 minute Misconduct penalty, which from a small sense I can almost see, but still quite excessive considering the nature of the incident, and a Game Misconduct for yet another 10 minutes.

Thankfully for him, the Game Misconduct was rescinded. This also means that the $200 fine associated with the misconduct will disappear as well.

What do you think of this whole situation? Did Gudas overreact a little bit? Do you believe the punishment exceeded the infraction? Sound off in the comments below and let us know what you think.

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