Enough is Enough...Time the NHL Cracked Down

Once again we find the NHL having to dole out discipline, and once again we find ourselves scratching our heads at just how they got there. Seriously, trying to guess what Brendan Shannahan will decide is like deciphering an episode of Lost. Patrick Kaleta a serial repeat offender crossed checked Brad Richards into the boards from behind last week and was thrown from the game and given a five game suspension. This is only one game more than is last suspension for head butting. He has been on the receiving end of suspensions three previous times and is a know @&#^ disturber across the league. With all that, Shannan added a whopping one game to the last suspension he was given. I like Brendan Shannahan as a player. He was tough and skilled and played the game hard. But now he's more like a puppet for the league. If the league wants to take player safety seriously, send a message. I like the decision to ban Zolnerchuck from Philly four games for his high hit to Ottawa's Mike Lundin a lot better, and it could have been more. Lundin was hurt and Richards was able to return but didn't play last night against Philly. I know injury is part of the equation but sometimes guys are just luck not to get hurt. It doesn't make the offending play any less egregious.

Take for example last Wednesday when the Leafs played the Habs and Mike Brown was tossed for hitting Josh Georges from behind. It was one of those plays that could have been two minutes, I didn't mind the major as this is the kind of hit the league needs to get out, but this was a case where the name on the back of the jersey was likely the reason. You think Kessel or Grabovski would have been tossed? There was outraged from the Leafs bench, understandably, but the bigger question here is, why put the referee in that situation? Hockey is a fast paced games and with the benefit of replay we can often look back and see reasons to mitigate punishment but at full speed they don't have that luxury so why risk it? I like the idea of being able to sort of grab a guy and hold him up a bit if you want to pin him to the boards as it is safer than running a guy which we've seen a lot of lately.

We can also look at the bizarre ruling in the Ryan Clowe case as an example of how the league needs to protect players from themselves. As I said before is Shaw was given a penalty none of that nonsense afterwards would have happened. It's up to the league, players and officials to get this thing under control for the sake of everyone involved and clean up the game and more strictly punish those who cross the line if only to get others thinking twice before they follow suit.