McSorley Found Guilty

NHL teams

McSorley was granted a conditional discharge, meaning no charges will go on his record as long as he completes 18 months of probation. He was also ordered not to play against Brashear during that time.

"I've played the game for a long time," McSorley told the judge. "I have a tremendous amount of respect for the game. ... I'm extremely glad to see Donald back on the ice and I do plan to address this with Donald in person."

McSorley was suspended by the NHL for the rest of last season after the hit and is an unrestricted free agent. He must meet with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman before he resumes playing.

"The court today said that its focus was solely on the charge against Mr. McSorley. This was not a trial of the game or the NHL," Bettman said Friday. "Clearly, this incident was not representative of NHL hockey or NHL players. While the court's decision today brings closure to this aspect of the incident, it does not alter our position that we will continue to punish severely acts of inappropriate conduct in our game."

"It happens in games. It happens all the time. There's other stuff that's probably worse than that," Bruins defenseman Kyle McLaren said. "The NHL did a good job of policing itself. Now it's going off-ice. It's sort of crossing some bounds here."