the Vancouver Canucks center has been suspended for the rest of the regular season and the playoffs, and the league reserves the right to revisit the punishment at a later date. The Canucks were also fined a quarter mil of real money (i.e., not Canadian pesos).
I still don’t believe, however, that the NHL realizes how big a deal this whole thing is though. Hockey is being ruined by the fact that hockey men are running the show. No matter what soothing words were uttered today, hockey people will line up to insist that this was an “isolated event” that “doesn’t reflect on the game itself.” I call bullshit, frankly.
Hockey is becoming a joke – always has been in 50% of NHL markets – and the fundamental problems can’t be addressed on an ad-hoc basis. I would ban fighting altogether and have an eye-in-the-sky (with video backup) to give immediate one-game bans for any – even incidental – contact to the face with a stick or any fist-to-player contact outside the bounds of a hockey play in progress. Re-offenders would have their penalty progressively increased. Given current NHL practice this would seem very draconian at first, but after a month or so the game would be quicker and way more fun for fans, both experts and casual.
Atchinator says
King Kaufman is one of those guys who only pipes up about hockey to say how there isn’t enough scoring. Now that there was an “incident”, he’s an expert. What he doesn’t realize is: the best thing Steve Moore could have done would have been to get his bell rung in a scrap with Bertuzzi. Taking the fighting out of hockey will only increase incidents like Moore’s cheapshot on Naslund (and his cheapshot on Tampa Bay’s Martin St. Louis). A good scrap can really set the tone for the game, establish some boundaries, or send a message that cheap shot players like Moore won’t be tolerated.
Hockey is a fast paced game with lots of physical contact. Tempers will flare. Is a concussion from a sucker punch to the back of the head an isolated event? Of course. Definitely more of an isolated event than a bench clearing brawl in baseball. I hope Moore has a speedy recovery and, when is back playing again, I guarantee he won’t be taking any more cheapshots on star players.
Michael says
“Hockey is a fast paced game with lots of physical contact. Tempers will flare.”
I call BS on this whole argument. There are lots of other fast paced games with as much or more physical contact as hockey, and none of them allow fighting or player self-policing of the action.
The whole point of being a professional athlete is to use one’s skills appropriately. There’s no place in the game for someone who can’t control his aggression. If a person were to transgress enough I would ban them for life.