"Sharks winger Dany Heatley took a swat at Dallas pest Steve Ott on Tuesday night. And it cost him a two-game suspension.

Heatley was punished Wednesday for throwing an elbow at Ott's head late in the Sharks' 6-3 victory over the Stars.

His timing wasn't very good because the NHL has become ultrasensitive to the issue of blows to the head amid criticism that it is not doing enough to make the game safe.

This has been The Season of the Concussion. The league's uneven response to the problem of head shots has become a main storyline.

Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, one of the NHL's top stars, has been out since early January because of a hit-related concussion. On March 8, Montreal winger Max Pacioretty suffered a severe concussion and cracked vertebra when he was hit from behind by Boston defenseman Zdeno Chara and driven into the glass.

The outcry was so loud when the league imposed no suspension or fine on Chara that sponsor Air Canada announced it was reassessing its association with the NHL.

This week, head safety was the primary topic at the annual meeting of general managers. The challenge continues to be finding a balance between a new awareness about the danger of sports concussions with the fact that hockey is a fast, physical and sometimes dangerous sport.

"Nobody wants to see people getting hurt," Sharks general manager Doug Wilson said by phone Wednesday, before Heatley's suspension was announced. "But we have to find a way to keep players safe without changing the game. The reality is that we're not going to be able to take all injuries and concussions out of the game. It's a collision sport."

Tuesday night was proof of that. The already bitter rivalry between the Sharks and the Stars added a new nasty chapter with several debatable checks.

The Stars were livid about an open-ice hit by Sharks defenseman Douglas Murray that knocked forward Loui Eriksson from the game. Murray also hit Dallas' Tomas Vincour's head with an elbow. Then there was Heatley's elbowing of Ott."