SENShobo
Discipline, Suspensions: What’s Your Call?
by SENShobo on 12/09/08 at 11:58 AM ET
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With all that’s happened in the past few weeks, the topic of suspensions and discipline has been brought to the forefront of discussions about the League, and as the Board of Governors meeting continues today, being filled yesterday with discussions on the economy (my thoughts on that), likely advancing today at last to salary cap discussions (my thoughts on that).
At some point, discussions will advance to suspensions, revolving around Avery, and the stricter sentencing around hits to the head with respect to Ruutu’s and Pock’s suspensions.
The question is, how should the League act with regards to suspensions and discipline, and how should they react to different offenses (Avery’s remarks vs. head shots as an example)? What are your thoughts?
I personally believe that discipline in the League should be similar to the application of the law at large in the world. Hits to the head are not illegal, are not often punished severely (see Pronger, Chris, and the 2007 playoffs), and only get real attention when serious injury occurs (see Pock and his elbow to Ryan Shannon, causing a concussion and weeks out of the lineup).
In the real world, attempted murder or assault, even attempted treason, all are punished, even if no actual harm comes from it. The League is afraid of rules removing hits from the game, and yet the anti-obstruction and stick infraction rules post-lockout have only further encouraged it, as well as rules against head shots have done nothing to lower hitting in other Leagues, only to make it smarter and safer.
With respect to Avery, part of the reason the suspension was so heavy was due to prior inappropriate acts, which I again support, just as previous history and offenses can increase prison sentences in the real world. In the case of Chris Simon, and his massive suspensions, I might look to compare that to the dangerous offender status that criminals can be labeled with, enabling them to be imprisoned for an indeterminate length of time. Suspensions are meant both as punishment, and as a deterrent; if the deterrent fails, the punishment and deterrent must be increased.
Finally, when you talk about incidents on a more public stage, again the punishment should be increased, as it does tarnish the League further. Comments that are heard by only a few players on the ice in the heat of the moment are completely different and separate from premeditated comments for the entire public to witness, and punishments should and did follow that difference. The biggest problem here is that while Avery’s “public stage” increased his punishment, it almost worked the opposite for Pronger in the 2007 playoffs.
After a terrible hit in the Western Conference Finals, he received only a single game suspension, and the same again when in the Finals he took an elbow to McAmmond’s face. Despite the repeat offenses of Pronger in general, of this same act in rapid succession in this particular incident, and the indisputably larger stage that is the Stanley Cup playoffs and Cup Finals, the argument could only be made that he received a lesser sentence for his acts, not a normal or higher one, given the stage he was on, and that sets a terrible precedent, and only further provides evidence that punishments to the average player (30 games to Chris Simon for stomping on Jarkko Ruutu’s leg) are much higher than those star players receive (8 games to Chris Pronger for stomping on Ryan Kesler’s leg).
While the automatic suspensions to Ruutu and Pock were a good step forward, and the suspension to Avery a positive sign as well that this League should not descend into turmoil, void all signs of respect, it must continue, and the League must get serious; otherwise, taking the League seriously becomes a challenge once again.
Filed in: NHL News, NHL Rules | SENShobo | Permalink
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