The most important news to come out of the NHL this past weekend was the New York Islanders miraculously scoring 16 goals in two games. Unfortunately, that's not what most sports writers decided to pay attention to on Monday morning. And why should they pay attention to hockey when there are more entertaining things to write about, like fighting.
This is basically what I saw happen Friday night in on Long Island in a game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Islanders: Trevor Gillies of the Islanders goes in for a hit on Eric Tangradi of the Penguins. As Gillies uses his elbow to give Tangradi a concussion, Tangradi pushes Gillies to the ice. Gillies, upset by the fact that he's been thrown to the ice, gets up and starts punching the concussed Tangradi in the head. So basically Gillies gives Tangradi a concussion and then tries to make it worse by punching and taunting the injured player.
This sets off a brawl in which many of the players square off including the Penguins's goalie, Brent Johnson, and Islanders's centre, Michael Haley. This fight has significance for two reasons: goalies rarely fight, and when they do it's usually other goalies, although not in this case; and Pittsburgh's Eric Godard came off the bench to protect his goalie from Haley.
Godard got a ten game suspension for coming off the bench automatically. I don't think coming off the bench is any near as despicable as using an elbow, but I understand the set suspension. What I fail to understand is Gillies only getting nine games for elbowing and punching his victim. Could you imagine if someone did that to someone else on the street? They would serve jail time, have a permanent criminal record, and have to go to anger management counselling.
It seems like head shots should be a very easy problem to solve, yet the NHL is reluctant to take appropriate action. Gillies used his elbow to concuss a player, and the sad thing is that it happens all the time. Matt Cooke did his best to end Marc Savard's career, and because he plays for the Penguins, the team isn't allowed to complain about Friday night's actions without looking hypocritical.
Penguins's owner, Mario Lemieux, said the league failed when they handed out their suspensions.
"The NHL had a chance to send a clear and strong message that those kinds of actions are unacceptable and embarrassing to the sport. It failed," he said. "We, as a league, must do a better job of protecting the integrity of the game and the safety of our players. We must make it clear that those kinds of actions will not be tolerated and will be met with meaningful disciplinary action.
"If the events relating to Friday night reflect the state of the league, I need to rethink whether I want to be a part of it."
He's not only being called a hypocrite due to these words, he's also being called a whiner.
Lemieux called the NHL a garage league in 1992 because of the hooking and holding. After that, the NHL successfully worked to get rid of the hooking and holding. Maybe people are scared that Lemieux is going to help rid the game of fighting. If they bad mouth him and make it look as though he's being a hypocrite the NHL is less likely to take what he says into consideration. Sounds like a good plan, the only problem is that Lemieux is right.
Matt Cooke may play for the Penguins, but they don't pay him to elbow people, Lemieux certainly doesn't. Teams like having rough and tough players, they perform a role that is necessary to winning, but they also have a negative side.
When you pay a player 8 million dollars a year to score it means you have fewer players on that team capable of scoring at a regular pace. When the 8 million dollar superstar becomes mired in a slump, the team suffers because they don't have adequate backup scoring. That's the downside to a highly payed sniper. The downside to a rough checker is that once in a while he throws an elbow. Teams should be allowed to employ them without wanting the elbows just like teams employ snipers without wanting the scoring slumps.
There is one sure fire easy way to stop this nonsense, yet the NHL is perhaps a bit too weak to do it. Don't suspend Gillies for 9 games, he'll be back in three weeks, head hunting again. Instead suspend him for the rest of the year. If he sits out the remaining 20 something games he'll probably be less likely to elbow someone in the head next season and someones career will be saved.
Fighting is one thing, although every time there's a fight all I can think about is which one is going to smash his head on the ice, but elbowing and head shots are deplorable. The NHL thinks so, at least that's what they say, but putting words into action, in this case, doesn't seem to be one of their strengths.
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