WELL. The big topic today is an article in the N&O about the stupidity of the NHL when it comes to handing out suspensions. Luke has also blogged a followup, and of course there are comments.

I don’t know that I totally agree with Luke’s math, but the main thrust of the article is that there is a gross discrepancy/inequality in the way that the NHL hands out suspensions. I fired off an e-maul to Don LeGreca and EJ Hradek (the guys who make NHL Live such fun to listen to), with my comments (not all of which were read on the air, partly because of the length and–well, you’ll see):

Don and EJ,

Luke DeCock (yes that really is his name) has a rather interesting article in this morning’s News and Observer (Raleigh’s fishwrap).

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/story/999555.html (So EJ can pull it up while this gets read)

Specifically, Luke talks about suspensions and the apparently random manner in which they are handed out.

For example: A guy who received two suspensions in the AHL for piledriving guys head-first at speed into the boards breaks an opponent’s neck by–surprise surprise–piledriving that opponent head-first at speed into the boards, is unrepentant about it…and gets a mere three games.

Another guy headshots an opponent in a critical playoff game, gets suspended one game–and then goes on to repeat his performance in the next round, knowing that at worst he’ll have to sit out the next game while the guy he headhunted is out for the rest of the playoffs and facing the possibility of having to retire early as a result of the hit.

Yet another player stomps on an opponent’s skate-boot, and gets only thirty games even though he has a rather lengthy history of being cheaper than a working girl from Newark. (For the record, I have been to Newark on several occasions. I stand by the jab–AQ)

And then we have the toolbox who deliberately piledrove the opposing team’s leading scorer head-first into the boards, and got nothing except a five-minute boarding major–and coaches just get told to keep their yaps shut and not say anything, for fear that their team may wind up becoming a target for some kind of retributive action.

I don’t get it–maybe I missed a memo or something, but perhaps you, illuminated scholars that you are, can explain to me the gross discrepancy in the (quote-unquote) “justice” that is meted out by the clownshoe who sits in the Discipline Czar’s seat to the 29 teams that his son doesn’t play for.

Thanks,

AQ

So there you have it–my comments, which got mangled in hilarious fashion by Don “Tee hee Del Greco”*. The first incident I cited in my example is officially dispensed with in my book, since the aggressor and aggressed threw down with each other and honour was satisfied. But still, only three games? Sorry, but that deserved more than the absolutely penurious suspension that was given.

Chris Pronger has almost as much of a history as Chris Simon, yet he gets dinky-doo for headhunting in two successive playoff rounds and nothing (at least, until the publication of Luke’s article) for his latest shenanigans–while Simon actually gets something approximating (in the Colin Campbell bizarre-world) a just and proper suspension.

It’s well past time for Colin Campbell to either step down or grow a pair and start giving out proper suspensions for cheap and dirty play. Hopefully this happens soon…and hopefully the Hurricanes don’t wind up suffering for the work of Luke and his compadres at the N&O.

*: An e-mailer playfully teased Don by ending her e-mail with “Tee Hee, Del Greco”–a reference to a retort John Davidson had to Don’s calling him the biggest homer in the NHL: “Why should I care what an ex-placekicker thinks?”