A situation arose recently where a player was assessed a major + game misconduct (boarding) and then committed another action that warranted a misconduct (abuse of officials). After the game, there was a question whether the straight misconduct should have turned into another game misconduct per the progressive misconduct rule, rule 404a. The answer is no. Only straight misconducts count towards the progressive misconduct rule. The rulebook and the supporting cases for rule 404 are unclear on this, but question #3 in Ask The Official Week #9 2016-2017 is very clear. To repeat, game misconducts DO NOT COUNT as misconducts when applying the progressive misconduct rule.

The actual game situation was more complex than this. Nice work by JT Sabin, Joe Procida, and Michael Ray to get it right on the ice. Well done gentlemen.