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Cowards at Play

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I didn’t want to blog anymore about the continuing rampant violence in the NHL, especially with the King of Conflict of Interests Colin Campbell at the helm. It had become a pointless exercise. Any more broken record jabber by me about headshots and excessive violence would have been useful if I got paid to write for this site, but I don’t, so I stopped talking about it. I’ve written about it plenty in the past, and my stance is quite obvious for anyone who’s been reading this site.

But the NHL’s continued incompetence has forced my hand once again, and like hundreds of other hockey blogs, I feel the need to sound off on what has been going on in these NHL playoffs.

Last night, notorious madman Raffi Torres set his crosshairs on Blackhawks winger Marian Hossa’s head and sent him to the hospital. Thankfully Hossa has since been released from hospital, but again, the culture of hockey that needs to change is so resolutely set in stone that anybody with a chance to change it either doesn’t want it changed (because they’re afraid and/or cowardly), or is content to ride out their careers and leave this mess for the next generation to clean up. This is not to let the on-ice officials off the hook. The quality of officiating in hockey today is in such a sorry state of disrepair. As the top-shelf hockey league in the world, the NHL needs to be embarrassed about the depths of stink that the referees have sunk to. Barely a night goes by without hearing a hockey fan somewhere groan when they learn which officials will be working their team’s game. Blaming the refs, a loser’s lament, has become an inescapable part of game analysis.

Throughout history (both real and fictional), there have been countless entities charged with protecting an institution. The NHL itself, the General Managers, the Board of Governors and the NHLPA all form an ecosystem that sets the direction for the sport and is responsible for ensuring the game’s growth and protecting its integrity. Over the last 20 years, hockey has grown in leaps and bounds, but I’m not so sure we can say the same about the integrity of the game. Perhaps in the NHL’s opinion, the ends justify the means. Integrity takes a back seat to profits, so it appears. Last year in the wake of the Chara/Pacioretty incident, Brian Burke waxed poetic about not wanting to change the “fabric of the game” with outright bans on headshots. Right. So instead, we’ll compromise the fabric of the game in other ways, most notably watching players leaving on stretchers for hits that should not be happening in the first place. It’s simply inexplicable that lewd gestures, and critical opinions are more offensive in the eyes of the league than is a shot that sidelines marketable star players for months on end.

When the execrable Colin Campbell was replaced by Brendan Shanahan, hockey fans rejoiced, or at worst were cautiously optimistic. Shanahan got off to a strong start as the czar of discipline, but it seems that before long, he received complaints from the powers that be, and his desire to mete out proper justice was once again, as it was with Campbell, thrown in to a state of confusion, disarray, and arbitrary justice. What was a 3 game ban for one player was a flaccid $2,500 fine for another. The famous two-tier system of different rules for stars vs grunts has once again come home to roost. Between Shea Weber turnbuckling Henrik Zetterberg’s head against the glass and James Neal’s Seal Team 6 mission to kill, a total of a 1 game ban and $2,500 in fines were dished out. Yet Blackhawks forward Andrew Shaw gets 3 games for clipping a goaltender that was in the “hitting zone”. Arbitrary indeed! Everybody understands that a lot is at stake, especially in the playoffs. But if teams are free to eliminate the other team’s stars, then it won’t be long before we go from the bloodsport of today, to mutually assured destruction. (For the “I didn’t know the Titanic was real / Who is Paul McCartney” crowd, please click here to learn about Mutually Assured Destruction before continuing.)

There’s an old guard in hockey that passes the torch down from one generation to the next. The old guard exists at the league’s head office, within each team, within the NHLPA, and within the media. Those with access to a microphone seem to get off on telling fans who are fed up with the escalating violence to either go watch another sport, or to “man up”, because hockey has always been this way and should always be this way. What garbage. What an utterly myopic, dogmatic black and white view. Yes, hockey is a tough sport and nobody ever wants that aspect of the sport to change, but I didn’t know that headshots and tough, hard-hitting hockey go hand-in-hand. I didn’t know that clean play, and hard-nosed hockey were mutually exclusive. I guess I haven’t yet devoted enough time to the history of the game, or spend enough time watching hockey to know the difference.

The problem is that the dinosaurs are too thick-skulled to comprehend what people are saying. If you’re going to take a stand against reckless hits to the head, then be consistent with punishment, otherwise there’s no point in any of it. This old guard, usually a loud, boisterous, and opinionated group quickly reverts to chiding (usually of the emasculation type) whenever the topic of violence in hockey comes up. These people likely have shrines to their Rock Em, Sock Em collection, complete with VHS player that demonstrates just how out of touch and stubborn they are. They also like to tell us that “if we’ve never played the game at that level, we can’t have a real opinion”. That’s the last resort of somebody who lacks the intelligence to participate in a civilized discussion. What they’re in efffect telling us is that only current or former NHL players are allowed to opine on the sport, and that their word is gospel. If you ever find yourself in the presence of one of these people as they tell you how bad a particular movie is, kindly remind him that they’ve never held a job in film production, and they should therefore shut their pieholes.

This is about nothing but fear and cowardice on the part of the NHL, and of the vanguards of “old-time hockey”.

  • Fear of seeing hockey evolve to the point where they don’t recognize it without the sheer brutality and over-the-top violence.
  • Fear of becoming irrelevant and out of touch.
  • Cowardice in that the powers that be circle their wagons and deflect all responsibility so that the status quo can resume.
  • Cowardice to take the heat from the dinosaurs once real, meaningful change is enacted.

The NHL shuffles deck chairs and continues to play the shell game in terms of player safety. They like to keep us in a state of flux, somewhere between angry, confused and sedated. They fast track new rules to deter head shots and are all too eager to show the world what a progressive group they are when that happens. They drop moderately heavy hammers on bottom-feeding players in an attempt to persuade us that they are serious about player safety. Nonsense! We are back to square one. Back to that prickly limbo where everyone is left guessing as to what will happen next. The only guarantee is that the next devastating head shot is only hours away.

Surprisingly, the way to fix this is not all that hard. For the most part, hockey’s rules make sense. Referees are armed with the authority to curb much of happens on the ice, from elbows to the head, to savage hits from behind, to unsportsmanlike conduct, to post-whistle nonsense. For some reason – whether through legitimate confusion, incompetence or marching orders – referees are not calling games properly. Raffi Torres will be suspended for his filthy hit, yet he was not penalized on the play. If the officials can get their act together (and that’s a big, perhaps impossible “if”) and if the powers that be can let Shanahan do his job without meddling in his process, then perhaps some level of consistency can be attained.

But things have spiralled so far out of control already, with the old guard watching as it happens. Through their indecision and ineptness, they’ve encouraged it to happen. Case in point is the rampant retribution for clean hits that has become recently engrained in the game. Clean hits were never punishable to the extent that they are today, and this is in large part because officials refuse to crack down and enforce rules. The old guard, now more than ever seems content with cashing fat paychecks until retirement, leaving the next generation of NHL leaders to do what this current old guard is too scared and cowardly to do.

It Just Keeps Getting Better

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Well wasn’t that nice of Mike Murphy, wasn’t it?

Now that Colin Campbell has stepped aside, Bettman’s cousin gets to take the reigns as far as discipline goes from now, until Brendan Shanahan takes over at the start of next season. I wonder how warm and fuzzy Shanny feels this morning that Murphy went ahead and doled out a four game punishment to Vancouver’s Aaron Rome for knocking Boston’s Nathan Horton out of the playoffs?

While it would be nice if this 4 game ban was actually the start of some new standard, there’s no indication that Shanahan sees things the same way as Murphy does, or that he plans to pick up where Murphy leaves off. The general assumption (or hope?) is that Shanahan will rip up the book and start anew; beginning a slow and painstaking journey in restoring confidence in the NHL’s disciplinary process by bringing a fresh perspective and approach to how supplementary discipline is handed out. If that’s indeed the case, then Murphy just put Shanahan in a really unenviable spot; fans are perplexed with the Rome suspension – unless of course it’s a new benchmark for blows to the head, in which case I believe most fans will embrace this new standard. But in essence, he has forced Shanahan to follow suit next year by punishing players with at least four game suspensions (though many would argue that four games in the Cup Finals is worth at least twice as many in the regular season) for similar offenses. Anything less, and the usual “same old, same old” refrain will erupt once again. Whatever path Shanahan takes, he would be well served to behave in the opposite of the current guard. That is to say that he must be transparent and open with how he plans to deal with supplemental justice. And for goodness sake, he has to avoid consulting everyone under the sun before reaching a decision.

And what of the hit that has cost Rome the rest of the Cup finals? Opinion on the hit ranges from blaming the victim to villifying the offender. Personally I believe the hit was a tad late, but it was not blindside. The only way it could ever be defined as blindside is because Horton was admiring his pass and wasn’t looking at what was coming in front of him. It’s his responsibility to keep his head up. If Rome doesn’t hit Horton in that situation, he’s out of a job, plain and simple.

As I remarked a couple weeks back, the NHL’s department of hockey ops set the table for themselves as far as criteria goes a couple years ago when they suspended Alex Ovechkin for hitting Brian Campbell from behind. In his statement, Colin Campbell ended his statement with the following:

“If you cause a player to be injured, then you have to be responsible for the play that you’re involved in, if there’s any carelessness or recklessness in it.”

Still, I do agree with the league’s “stance” that if you hurt somebody by being reckless, you should be suspended. We can argue whether or not Rome was reckless in wiping out an opponent who had no idea what was about to happen. The fact is the league saw it that way, and so it’s a closed case. The trouble is that many, many other hits have adhered to these same criteria yet the offending player was not punished. Yeah, the Pacioretty hit is the poster child for the league’s hypocrisy in this instance, and that’s what has many fans, Habs fans in particular so angry and confused. Again.

Using Campbell’s statement above, Chara should have been suspended. He was certainly being reckless, and he obviously caused injury. Yet he skated away scot-free and even received a standing ovation upon his return home to Boston. The issue becomes even more confounding when you take Murphy’s comments on the Rome suspension. Murphy said that the result of the hit, and the lateness of the hit are what compelled Murphy to give Rome four games. How then, did that logic not apply to when Chara hit Pacioretty? Hypocrisy? Stupidity? Favoritism? Double standards? Different rules for stars? Whatever the reason was for not suspending Chara, it was wrong then, and that wrong has been amplified now.

By the same token, again, I have no problem with a suspension for a hit causing injury. It apparently is too much, however, to ask the league to be honest and consistent with their punishments. With vagaries like “we have our own formula at NHL hockey operations for determining late hits”, it’s no wonder that we fans have totally lost faith in the supplemental discipline process. Like any good chef, everyone knows that a formula can be tweaked on a whim, and the league has clearly been a mad scientist in the kitchen. They jerk around with the formula on a case to case basis so that the end result suits their taste. How else can we rationalize the haphazard, inconsistent and bizarre decisions the league has made over the years. Players are confused, and a decline in the quality of officiating indicates that the officials are also unsure of themselves.

The day after the hit that sidelined the Canadiens winger, the organization announced that Pacioretty had suffered a severe concussion and a fractured C4 vertebra in his neck. Bruins fans and media alike thought it was a conspiracy to get Chara suspended through embellishment of the extent of the injury. Yet in the same fashion, the Bruins organization was quick to divulge the severity of Horton’s concussion and that his season was over. They didn’t even wait until the next day; they let Horton’s status be known in the minutes following game 3. I wonder if Bruins fans figured it was another conspiracy to get Rome suspended? Naw, their team wouldn’t be that classless and devious…or whiny and weasly…would it? Of course not…just don’t listen to the trifecta of liars in Ference, Lucic and Coach Julien who want you to believe their words, but ignore their repeated actions.

A short time after being stanchioned, Pacioretty was released from hospital and resumed his recovery; opening a twitter account, and having the audacity of going to a movie theater were just two of the the things he did to fill his suddenly open schedule. Similarly, Horton was released from hospital the very next day after being crushed by Rome. Teammate Milan Lucic soon after admitted that Horton had been texting him. Tweeting. Texting. Tomayto, tomahto. I wonder if Bruins fans have embraced their own ”embellished injury” theory yet? Let’s see what happens if Horton is feeling well enough to be in attendance for game 4 in Boston. If he is, I’m guessing he’ll get on the jumbotron, and I’m guessing he’ll get an ovation. Movie theaters. Arenas filled with light and noise. Potayto, potahto. In short, these incidents are so strikingly similar, yet the hypocrisy spouting from Boston now that their guy has been felled is so thick you need a chainsaw to cut through it. If you’re a Bruins fan reading this, and your retort is “well at least we didn’t call 911″, then you have no leg to stand on.

I’m not here to say that the Bruins have embellished. Clearly Horton is hurt. The sight of his crumpled body on the ice is as sickening as seeing Pacioretty laying motionless. What I am drawing attention to is the manner in which the people in Boston reacted in the aftermath of the Pacioretty/Chara incident. Now that they find themselves in a similar situation, hopefully they now see things differently.

As Murphy addressed the media yesterday, he credited his buddy Colin Campbell on numerous occasions for teaching him everything he learned. The same Colin Campbell who was embroiled in an email scandal that revealed extreme bias and in which should have resulted in his immediate termination. The same Colin Campbell who went on TSN Radio earlier this year and confessed to not knowing the rules anymore. The same Colin Campbell with a conflict of interest. The same Colin Campbell that made a mockery of the league for over a decade. If that doesn’t say enough about Mike Murphy’s education, then I don’t know what does. Remember Mel Brooks’ role from Spaceballs? The supreme schmuck President Skroob? Towards the end of the movie as all hell is breaking loose, Skroob turns to one of his minions and says “Sandurz! Help me! I don’t know what to do! I can’t make decisions! I’m a President!” Somehow Spaceballs and the NHL seem to fit hand-in-hand these days. Surrounded by assholes. Major assholes.

Fabric of the Game

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The NHL’s 30 General Managers are all done in Boca Raton. Meetings are all wrapped up, presentations given and powerpoint slides spent. With player safety front and center on the agenda, and in the wake of the Chara/Pacioretty hit, we’ve heard variations of the phrase “we don’t want to tamper with the fabric of game” uttered several times.

It seems that the General Managers, custodians of the game, and the men who shape hockey as we see it on the ice are overwhelmingly reticent to make player safety a top priority despite the top billing on the agenda. Why? Because it may mess with “the fabric of the game”.

Well let me submit the following:

  • For every game Sidney Crosby, Marc Savard, David Perron, and other star players miss because of unnecessary, and potentially preventable head shots, the fabric of the game is tampered with.
  • For every ESPN update with a prone, unconscious hockey player on the ice, leaving the NHL with another black eye, the fabric of the game is stained.
  • For every toothless, feckless “plan” that doesn’t address the root of the problem, and accomplishes nothing other than provide something to prop up as “great progress” in the quest for player safety, the fabric of the game is weakened.
  • For every blindside hit, dirty head shot, and violent kill shot that goes unpunished, and excused as “a good hockey play”, the fabric of the game deteriorates.
  • For every time the issue of violence in hockey is swept under the rug and dismissed as “part of the game”, (or when dullard coaches insist that fans “stay home”) the fabric of the game unravels.
  • For every time stanchions and equipment are fingered as the real culprits, instead of the unthinking, uncaring player, the fabric of the game is torn.
  • For every day that passes with no real deterrent for hits to the head, and the  run around unchecked, without responsibility, the fabric of the game is left in the sun to fade.
  • For every passing season where gestures and comments are considered more offensive than dangerous, potentially career-threatening hits to the head, the fabric of the game is scuffed.
  • For every year that slips by where General Managers refuse to comprehend that hits to the head that can end careers, and detroy lives are toxic to the sport, the fabric of the game is eroded from the inside-out.
  • For every time fan bases get at each others’ throats over violent hits, instead of forming a united front to help drive change, the fabric of the game is frayed.

The NHL has plenty of dangling loose ends right now. From sponsorship scandals, ownership battles, poor vieweship, weak attendance in many U.S. markets, nonsensical rules, inexplicable discipline rulings, and unabated violence, it’s clear that the league needs to be saved from itself. While the quality of the games has never been higher, particularly at the international level (where headshots are banned) and during the playoffs (where violence takes a back seat in the pursuit of glory) the whole sport is lesser when the impotent, sloth-footed powers that be refuse to rise to the occasion and do what’s right. Hockey isn’t what it used to be. The game has evolved over the past century to become the fastest, hardest-hitting game on earth. There was a time when the forward pass was not permitted. There was a time when goalies were not allowed to go down to make a save. There was a time when goalie masks were unheard of. There was a time when helmets were considered for sissies, and had to be grandfathered in. Hockey moved past all of those things. Leaders opened their eyes, took chances, and lived with the pain that comes with change.

Coming out of the lockout, the NHL made changes to the rules that emphasized skill, speed and scoring. They didn’t foresee the increase in violence and devastating hits that would result from hulking players flying unchecked at supersonic speeds, wearing rock-hard equipment and armed with the most dangerous weapon of all: recklessness. Today the General Managers are willingly stuck in quicksand and refuse to reach for the vines that can pull them to safety. Perhaps they hope their toes touch bottom before they suffocate. Can they really be this blind? Are they so proud that they can’t or won’t make changes that will potentially undo the changes they made a few years ago? Don’t get me wrong: I do believe that equipment and arena design needs to be addressed. But that still isn’t enough. Not by a long shot. The root cause is player irresponsibility, carelessness, lack of respect and comfort in knowing that discipline, if any will be light. A one or two game suspension may even be a welcome trade of rest for “sending a message” to an opponent.

Perhaps the leaders of the sport should swap the term “fabric” for “carbon-fibre”, “graphite”, or “kevlar” since they seem to prefer things that are as hard as their heads.

Violence & Headshot Blog Compilation

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There’s been an unprecedented amount of chatter, much of it of the loud, profane and passionate variety surrounding the Chara/Pacioretty incident.

While the hit was a shock to everyone, it’s important to use this incident as a spearhead for league-wide change, and not just an opportunity for Habs fans to get “justice for their guy”. While some justice would have been nice (considering Campbell’s quote after suspending Ovechkin last season), that no supplemental discipline was given to Chara may be a blessing in disguise. If he had received a game or three, there would still be a large amount of fans dissatisfied with the decision. Upon serving the meagre suspension, the refrain would have reverted to “he served his suspension, move along”.

Instead, the league has flung the door wide open to criticism on their insane views of what is tolerated as “part of the game” and what isn’t.

I’ve been very, very vocal about the whole situation on twitter, and it’s led to many “accusations” that I’m only this upset because it’s happened to a Canadiens player. While my anger is certainly intensified this time around (and to be fair, a broken neck and severe concussion is as horrific an injury as we’ve seen in the NHL since the Bertuzzi/Moore incident of several years ago. Marc Savard’s accumulated head traumas are certainly the most profound for any player since Moore) there’s no doubt that I’ve made my stance and opinion on the state of the NHL very clear. I may not have listed every incident, but you’ll get the point.

Below is a compilation of blog posts that I’ve written over the past couple years that prove (I hope) just how disgusted I am with the league and their ineptitude to properly deal with headshots.

I’m not sure how I’d qualify it, but the oldest blog entry on this list most closely mirrors the way I feel today about Pacioretty. This tells me that despite the introduction of rule 48 to NHL play, that the sport of hockey is still nowhere near getting to the root of this frightening problem.

As Canadiens fans prepare to protest at the Bell Center prior to the game on March 15th, I can only speak for myself when I say that I hope the focus of  the protest centers around the fact that the NHL now expects their players to take far too many risks and that they need to get serious about suspensions and safety. Hockey has always been a fast, dangerous sport. The lack of respect among players, and the flaccid, impotent rules (as well as the disciplinary office) only make it a more hazardous environment.

Pathetic

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There’s no other word for any of what’s transpired in the past 36 hours. Some may use “unfortunate” and “coincidental contact” as ways to describe it. They have their right to be idiots.

This whole debacle has been pathetic.

Pathetic is Chara’s insistence to keep hacking away at Pacioretty after the latter gave him a light bump in the back after scoring in overtime.

Pathetic was the sight of Max Pacioretty unconscious on the ice. With his parents in the stands.

Pathetic is Chara attempting to hide away on the team bus and not take responsibility for what he did.

Pathetic is Chara, after being dragged off the team bus then placing the blame on Pacioretty for leaning and jumping in to the glass.

Pathetic is the Bruins continued philosophy of goonery and excessive aggression.

Pathetic is the NHLPA for not realizing what’s at stake.

Pathetic is the NHL’s flaccid non-response to this flagrant dirty hit (and countless others), especially when the head disciplinarian contradicts himself.

Pathetic is the National media’s collective shrug and willingness to leave it as a “good hockey play gone bad” (save for Pierre McGuire and Cam Cole).

Pathetic is the National media’s stance that it’s “the building’s fault”.

Pathetic is the National media conveniently dismissing the history between the two players.

Pathetic are the Canadiens brass for not speaking up publicly for their players, and their fans. DONE!

Pathetic that the only way the NHL may listen is if million-dollar sponsors threaten to disassociate themselves from the league.

Pathetic that this has gone on for so long without a solution, that the law and/or government may now decide to intervene, and pathetic that fans around the league will act surprised and claim that there’s no place in hockey for “the law”.

In how many other ways is this incident pathetic?

Look What You’ve Done, Gary

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If you follow the pulse of NHL chatter on Twitter, you “learn” a lot of “things” about the wonderful Commissioner of the NHL. For example, did you know:

  • That Gary Bettman hates Canada with the burning rage of the dual Tatooine suns?
  • That Gary Bettman is pulling strings – as I type this – to ensure that the Penguins, Capitals, Coyotes, and Red Wings, are all going to win the Cup this year?
  • That Gary Bettman has Sidney Crosby pyjamas, a Sidney Crosby poster above his bed, and a picture of Sidney Crosby in a heart-shaped locket around his neck?

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, and as much of a lie telling doofus as Gary Bettman is, clearly much of the hate is off-the-wall. He’s brought it on himself, but sometimes we get a little ahead of ourselves.

But the League’s top executive, and his team of cronies (hi, Colin! hi, Bill!) has really done it this time. For years fans have been waiting for the NHL to do something about the growing number of head shots and concussions, to little or no avail. Many assumed that if Sidney Crosby were to ever go down with a head injury, the league’s head office inhabitants would turn themselves inside-out in order to implement some sort of rule to curb headshots. They can’t lose the poster-child, can they? Surely the NHL’s offices would collapse like Barad-Dur if the Golden Boy were to miss extended action, right?

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Lo, and behold that time is upon us.

As you know by now, Sidney Crosby was clobbered by David Steckel and Victor Hedman in consecutive games shortly after the calendar rolled over to 2011, and has yet to return to action. In fact, he has yet to resume light exercise. Whispers are now gaining steam, leading Globe and Mail columnist (and my favorite sports journalist / sports writer) Stephen Brunt to reveal on the Team 990′s airwaves that he has heard that Crosby may not be back at all this year.

Perfect. The NHL’s best player, the face of the league and the spearhead of many marketing efforts *may* miss the playoffs (and scuttle Bettman’s chances to further line the rafters at the Pens’ shiny new arena with Cup banners). Oops!

I’m not saying that any kind of legislation or rule would have protected the league’s top player, who was in the midst of one of the best seasons we’ve seen in a while, from injury. What I am saying is that now the discussion has just became a lot more complicated for Gary and his band of merry incompetents. Complicated, not because the solutions are difficult to pin down and implement (they are complex) but because he’s brought a mess to his doorstep that was entirely avoidable by merely taking their collective heads out of the sand. It’s better to do something than to do nothing. The blindside hit rule (rule 48) is a nice start, but it’s only that – a start. That the refs still can’t consistently enforce that rule points to the fact that the league really isn’t all that focused on making things better. The way the NHL has approached this issue, they’ve made it sound like curbing head shots is akin to achieving time travel. Maybe Emmett “Doc” Brown is available for consultation? My money is on the NHL cleverly ambushing him on October 21, 2015, since they’ll know exactly where he will be.

For argument’s sake, if they decide to crack down and institute real measures (rules, consequences, assessments, treatments) to get rid of head shots and lessen the severity of concussions, people that despise Crosby and Bettman (there are plenty in both camps) will say it was only done to protect the “Chosen One”. Bruins fans in particular may bristle at this after one of their stars, Marc Savard was decimated by Matt Cooke. If the boneheads continue to drag their heels (as well as their knuckles), they’ll be accused of not caring about the stars, the fans, the product, or the game. His continued reluctance to apply common sense in the face of a terrible rash of recent head injuries has now landed him squarely between a rock and a hard place. Maybe Gary can have a sit-down with a really brave guy who knows a thing or two about just that.

If I were Bettman, I’d rather suffer the consequences of being labeled as the former instead of the latter. He’s gone way beyond the point of getting credit for being “proactive” on the issue.

Your move, Gary.

Day Zero for Colin Campbell

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Better late than never, as the saying goes.

NHL “disciplinarian” Colin Campbell today handed down an 8 game suspension to Anaheim Ducks defenseman James Wisniewski for this horrendous head shot:

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I’m sure there are many hockey fans out there that are both puzzled and outraged with the decision. Why did he get 8 games while Matt Cooke got none? Why did he get 8 games while Downie got none? Why did he get 8 games while Ovechkin only got 2?

The fact is it doesn’t matter. Not anymore.

While Campbell sat by and blithely found reasons to dismiss dirty hits, or hand out limp 2-game bans, fans got angrier and angrier while the NHL made itself in to more and more of a laughing stock.

If there’s a silver lining to a hit like Wisniewski’s, it’s that Seabrook walked away from the hit, and it’s that Campbell acted swiftly and harshly. He didn’t dawdle over whether or not Cooke would or could be suspended, he didn’t hand out pathetic $1,000 fines, and he didn’t sit around spinning the wheel of justice until it landed on a small enough number of games fit for a star to miss. Clearly, when he wants to, he is able to act quickly instead of checking schedules for potential conflicts, and checking to see which way the wind is blowing.

On the night that an angry Bruins team was going to get their shot at retribution on Matt Cooke, Campbell levied what I hope to be the new standard for dirty hits, especially ones to the head. Now I’m sure that Bruins fans (and the Bruins themselves) are extra angry. If any one of their players gets excessive with Cooke, or one of the Penguins stars, you can bet that the suspension will be severe. It’s unfair, and on some level it’s wrong. Sometimes you’re the bug, and sometimes you’re the windshield. In a season where nothing has gone right, the Bruins are the bug.

I think fans have to understand that Campbell has probably figured out that he’s made a fairly ugly mess of things and that he has to put a stop to it at some point. With guys having their heads smashed on a nightly basis, the time to act is now. In fact, the time to act was long ago. The players are as disjointed a group as there is, there’s no sense in looking to them for logical behavior or coherent action. To a man, they keep blowing the same hot air: “I didn’t intend to hurt him / I don’t go out there to injure”. Sure guys. Then why does it keep happening? And why do you guys keep acting as a roadblock to getting new rules in place? If the players can’t or won’t control themselves, then the league has to do it for them. Marc Savard, Brian Campbell, Brent Seabrook, and Sidney Crosby have all been subject to a range of questionable hits over the past week. You can even lump Seabrook’s questionable hit on Perry in there if you want. That’s 5 guys of Olympic and all-star calibre in a week. Two will miss a long period of time, 1 is yet to be determined, and 2 were lucky to walk away unscathed. At that rate there won’t be any stars left to sell the game!

Colin Campbell needed to swallow his pride, and start acting like someone who has the teeniest clue about what he’s doing. I believe he did that today, and if it’s at all possible, he deserves some credit. If 8 games becomes the new baseline for taking a run at someone’s head (heck, even if 5 games is the new baseline; Wisniewski is a repeat offender after all), then Campbell can restore some measure of faith and credibility by sticking to it, regardless of the name on the back of the jersey. He will never fully erase the years of futility and impotency that he will forever be known for, but he can do the game some good if he finally does the right thing and get serious with cheap shot artists. Players don’t care about 1 or 2 game suspensions. That’s a short break from a long year. The lost salary is just a few nights out where they take it easy instead of going all out. Start suspending guys for 10% of the season and the picture becomes clearer. Get these guys off the ice, and hit them in the wallet. That’s where it hurts most. Suddenly, they’re not thinking about just cutting back to make up for lost pay; they’re actually reeling from the financial hit. It may take a while, but I’m certain that a player with violence on his mind will think twice about recklessly hitting an unsuspecting opponent if he reprograms himself to understand that he won’t just miss a game or two, but 5 or 10.

Where do you stand? Do you think Colin Campbell finally got one right?

The Monthly Hockey Headshot Debate Heats Up Again

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Does anyone else find it ironic that just as we receive an update to the health of Kitchener Rangers forward Ben Fanelli, that yet another devastating hockey hit has taken place, with yet another player landing in the hospital for observation?

For those who don’t remember, Michael Liambas attempted to send Ben Fanelli head-first through the boards and in to the front row. OHL Commissioner David Branch suspended Liambas from the OHL. Forever. I was elated at that decision, as nobody that plays so recklessly deserves to play hockey at any level, much less earn a paycheck doing it. I had thought that Branch’s suspension would be message to other players in junior hockey that reckless hits would no longer be tolerated. I guess I was wrong.

On January 17th, Patrice Cormier decided to take batting practice on Mikael Tam’s head with his elbow. It represents the continuing trend of disgusting, disturbing hits that continues to make hockey look like a joke, and that continue to be excused. If you haven’t seen it, here it is (around the :24 second mark):

If that’s not malice in action, I don’t know what is.

The problem is, these types of hits to the head are happening more and more often at both the junior and NHL level.

Here’s a very short list of headshots from THIS SEASON ALONE:

Mike Richards on David Booth

Andrew Ladd on Matt D’Agostini

Michael Liambas on Ben Fanelli

Johnny Boychuk on Matt Stajan

There are certainly others out there that have taken place this season, these are simply the ones that I can recall from the top of my head.

The point of this article is not to discuss how dirty some of these hits are. It’s to point out that these are taking place much more often, and with much more violence than ever before. Some fall within the “rules” of the game, but I’ve long maintained that hockey needs to evolve. Tyler, of nhldigest also believes that a change needs to happen, but his main contention is that if the rules are called as they are written, and if equipment is made to protect instead of to injure, we’d be on the right track.

What doesn’t help is when a legend like Lou Lamoriello comes out and states that the Patrice Cormier hit is not suspension-worthy. Whether or not the headline is misleading (i.e. was the question to Lou about a season-ending suspension, or any suspension), the point is moot. This was a heinous offense by a repeat offender.

“”I’m not the judge or jury, but in my opinion no,” Lamoriello said when asked if he felt that was possible.

He also said he did not foresee legal action.

“Not in my opinion,” Lamoriello said.

What is he thinking? I don’t need to tell you how much power Lamoriello wields within NHL head offices, but it goes without saying that any change or evolution of the game would greatly benefit from his support.

Looked at from another angle, certainly the cost and time involved to play organized hockey these days has become prohibitive for many parents, but you also won’t have to go very far to find a parent who just won’t subject their child to the potential of having their brains scrambled. True, a kid could have his head smashed in football too. But in the NFL, you can’t breathe on a guy’s helmet without repercussions. Perhaps a little heavy-handed for a sport based on violence, but the last time I looked, the NFL was the model professional sport in North America. It’s far and away the biggest money maker and by far gets the most eyeballs.

There are a lot of dinosaurs out there that simply shrug and say that hockey is a fast-paced contact sport and if you don’t want to get hurt, don’t play. Mike Milbury comes to mind in this instance. Such flippant ignorance is half the problem. Hockey has changed so many times since it was first created late in the 19th century. It’s silly to think that it cannot or should change. Hockey is still dominated by Don Cherry’s Rock ‘em Sock ‘em culture, and while I don’t think Don Cherry is to blame, the evolution of the types of hits he has become rich while endorsing is what we are seeing today. Players are coached to “finish their checks”, and to “separate the man from the puck”. These are cornerstones of physical hockey, and are not likely to ever vanish. I don’t want to see the demise of physical, hardnosed hockey either but I also am fed up of seeing people being wheeled off on a stretcher and sent to the hospital.

If you want to make the argument that pros exchange their safety and their health for their obscene paychecks, go ahead. I disagree with that completely, but I’m also probably not going to dissuade you from your stance.

What do you think? Is there a way to get the message through to the players heads? Is there a ban or suspension long enough that will serve as a reminder to all players that they need to be responsible for their actions? Or have they been coached a certain way for so long, that it will be virtually impossible to eliminate without taking the hitting out of hockey?


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