Mathieu Olivier's wallet just took a hit.
The Columbus Blue Jackets forward was fined $5,000 for slashing Florida Panthers defenceman Uvis Balinskis, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced Wednesday.
The incident occurred on Tuesday when Olivier slashed Balinskis between the legs from behind after the two battled for a puck along the boards in the Florida end.
Olivier was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct.
The 29-year-old forward was a minus-1 in 9:13 of ice time before his night ended early. After the game, Olivier spoke to the media and said he apologized to his teammates for his actions.
"I can sit here and try to rationalize it all I want with you. I don't even have an explanation for it. It looked bad. It was bad and that's on me," he said, according to Mark Scheig of The Hockey Writers. "I apologize to my teammates for putting them in that spot and it's happened a couple times this year. It's usually not what I do, but it's been happening, so I need to look in the mirror and figure it out. That's all on me."
The right-shot winger entered Tuesday's contest with two goals in the first four games this season.
Balinskis briefly left the game but did return. The Panthers won the game 7-3.
