I'm still not even sure precisely what he did so am really surprised by some of the strong opinions here. Feels like there are a lot of reactions to what people imagine he may have done and not what we know for a fact that he actually did. Some guesses can be made for sure but they would still be guesses.
Speaking of which, one of the conditions he has to complete was for a substance abuse program. Did he happen to get charged with a DUI and/or public intox or anything similar? It's the one aspect of all of this that I've found strange since this was supposedly alcohol related and I thought this happened in a vehicle. Speaking of guesses, I'm going to guess they didn't teleport to the gas station.
Often times alcohol/substance abuse treatment is a requirement for guilty/no-contest pleas in assault cases involving alcohol. In fact, an alcohol monitoring bracelet is often a condition of bond when they are initially arrested and post bail. If he had been drinking it's not that surprising that he would be required to complete a substance abuse treatment course. I highly doubt a public intox charge would have been the deciding factor on such treatment.
As for the strong feelings, it has to do with a combination of things not the least of which is how much attention is paid to these cases. This is a prime opportunity to continue to show that these incidents, even if they are viewed as "minor," have no place in our society, and the punishment should be harsh. A severe punishment doesn't preclude a second chance later on, but it does help communicate to others that things which used to be viewed as relatively minor (or even viewed as a part of society we should accept, as it still is in several places around the world, including areas where hockey is a huge sport) are, in fact, serious if for no other reason than a failure to address them promptly leads to even more severe violence down the road in entirely too many cases.
I know the natural reaction is often "this isn't fair" since others have been treated with much softer gloves not even that long ago, but that mistakes in dealing with these things were made then doesn't mean we should continue to make them in the name of fairness*.
*I'm not accusing you of making the fairness argument, LCPreds. I'm pretty much just preemptively taking that particular, popular argument off of the table because I'll be mowing the grass shortly and won't be responding for a while