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There is a new sheriff in the National Hockey league, and his actions are clear on what direction the league is going in.
Prior to the 2011-2012 season, the NHL knew they had to take action with addressing headshots. The constant injuries and questionable hits sparked so much, that it demanded change in how to judge these types of situations. As a result, Colin Campbell stepped down as the league disciplinarian, and the NHL replaced him with vice president of safety, Brendan Shanahan.
Change was evident in the league, especially with some key incidents that occurred in the last few months of the regular season. The first incident that sparked up the conversation came in 2010, when Pittsburgh Penguins forward Matt Cooke gave a deliberate blow to Marc Savard’s head. Savard was never the same after that hit, and his career probably ended a year later when he suffered a similar hit at the hands of Colorado Avalanche defenseman Matt Hunwick. Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli announced early in the season that Savard would miss the entire 2011-2012 season due to post-concussion-like symptoms.
If Savard’s injuries weren’t enough of an indicator for improvement on player safety, then perhaps the concussion to the league’s poster boy did the trick. Sidney Crosby suffered a severe concussion during the 2011 Winter Classic, after he had an awkward collision with Washington Capitals forward David Steckel. Although the hit was not considered dirty, the hit was devastating to the Penguins captain, as he missed the remainder of the season and is still out to this day with post-concussion symptoms.
Following the injury to Crosby, his teammate, Matt Cooke, was at it again and received two different offenses. The first one was a hit from behind on Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Fedor Tyutin on February 9, which earned him a four-game suspension. The suspension was clearly not a lesson learned by Cooke, as he created another offense with an elbow to the head of New York Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh on March 21. The forward’s fifth offense (and second in less than two month span) resulted in a bigger consequence for Cooke, as he was banned 10 games and for the entire first round of the playoffs.
In just the first two months at his new position, Shanahan has really cracked the whip, issuing 11 suspensions in such a little time period. Here is the list so far:
9/22/11 Jody Shelley: 4 Preseason Games and 5 Regular Season Games= 9 Games
9/22/11 Pierre Luc Letourneau-Leblond: 4 Preseason Games and 1 Regular Season Game= 5 Games
9/25/11 Brad Boyes: 2 preseason Games= 2 Games
9/26/11 James Wisniewski: 3 Preseason Games 8 Regular Season Games= 11 Games
9/26/11 Brad Staubitz: 4 preseason Games and 3 Regular Season Games= 7 games
9/27/11 Jean Francois Jacques: 2 Preseason Games and 5 Regular Season Games= 7 Games
9/28/11 Tom Sestito: 2 Preseason Games and 2 Regular Season Games= 4 games
9/29/11 Brendan Smith: 3 Preseason Games and 5 Regular Season Games= 8 Games
9/30/11 Clarke MacArthur: 1 preseason Game and 2 Regular Season Games= 3 Games
10/9/11 Pierre Marc-Bouchard: 2 Regular Season Games= 2 games
10/18/11 Kris Letang: 2 Regular Season Games= 2 Games
At this point last season, there were just seven suspensions handed out, and three of them were for obscene gestures or unsportsman-like incidents.
While last year’s talk was for the league to crack down on illegal hits and focus on player safety, the key criticism this year has been that the league is acting too strict on the new reinforcements.
Hockey Commentator Don Cherry was one of the front runners of the debate, as he said on the Thursday edition of CBC’s Coach’s Corner segment about Darryl Boyce’s suspension: “He gives him ten games. Ten games,” said Cherry of Shanahan. “You know how many shifts Boyce missed? He only lost two shifts.”
On Saturday night, a more relaxed Cherry pointed out that Shanahan simply set the bar too high. Also Saturday, HNIC Hotstove guest Eric Francis said that one-third of the 30 NHL GMs are not happy with the length of the suspensions.
“I spoke to almost a third of the general managers today, and I was a little bit surprised to find out that there is a group of them that have gone to [NHL commissioner] Gary Bettman and [deputy commissioner] Bill Daly and made it very clear that they are very unhappy with the way that Brendan Shanahan has handled the suspensions,” Francis reiterated.
Clearly the NHL is going in a new direction, which is seeking better protection for their players. Obviously, it’ll be a long working process for the old school guys like Cherry and some of the current GMs, but you can’t help but like the message the league is sending out.
On the other side of the argument, you can say an element of the game is being removed, which could change the game drastically. The big hit that many of us enjoy seeing will be removed from the game, and the physical play from the likes of Todd Bertuzzi, Claude Lemiuex, Michael Peca, and Scott Stevens may never have a place in the game again. I’m not saying these guys would have been bad players if these policies were instituted 10 years ago, but I can confidently say that their huge hits and playing styles will never be replicated again with this new playing structure.
So what is the right thing to do? Is Brendan Shanahan going too far with his excessive discipline? Is it necessary to ensure player safety? Does it take away from the game of hockey? These are the questions that the league will have to answer in the next year.
Michael Jafari is a producer and contributor for WGR Sports Radio 550 in Buffalo, NY. He also served as the Web Content Coordinator Graduate Assistant for the Buffalo Sabres, Buffalo Bandits and the IIHF World Junior Championship. You can follow him on twitter: @mikejafari.
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