My colleague and friend Mark Spector of Sportsnet wrote what in this scribe’s eyes is a sad but very true column recently. The main point of this well-written column was that NHL players will do whatever it takes to win in the Stanley Cup playoffs even if that includes seriously injuring a player or ignoring what seems to be a very outdated code.
As Spector pointed out, targeting an opponent’s existing injury isn’t exactly old news and not necessarily crossing the line. But making it a more severe injury or creating possibly a very serious one is. Yet for whatever reason that is accepted as “playoff hockey” and no longer “dirty hockey.” Somewhere along the course of time, targeting a player’s head — as Brent Seabrook did with David Backes — or spearing a player in the groin — like Milan Lucic on Danny Dekeyser, is accepted as “winning at all costs” and understood amongst the players. What ever happened to Darren McCarty being so disgusted with having to shake Claude Lemieux‘s hand after Lemieux almost gave McCarty’s teammate Kris Draper an indented face for life or even worse, brain damage? Hey! That’s just playoff hockey now, right?
Last week I called on the NHLPA to step up for the victims in hearings with the NHL and NHL Department Of Player Safety as well as to suggest a solution to end Matt Cooke‘s reign of havoc on the NHL. Well not to beat a dead horse and with all due respect to the union, they and the NHL need to change this culture ASAP and stop missing perfect opportunities to do so when the whole world is watching. The TV ratings for the Stanley Cup playoffs in the United States continue to rise higher and higher and if the Columbus Blue Jackets can upset the Pittsburgh Penguins, another expansion market will finally be on the map as a legit NHL team. Bash Gary Bettman all you want for the Florida Panthers or the Phoenix Coyotes but you can’t argue with the Anaheim Ducks, Tampa Bay Lightning, Carolina Hurricanes, Nashville Predators, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars and now the Blue Jackets. Yes the Preds and Hurricanes missed the playoffs but one organization has a Stanley Cup and the other is always in playoff contention. Even the Coyotes made the conference finals two seasons ago. The NHL is booming and it doesn’t need a serious and scarring injury to derail its progress.
So the next time Lucic decides to give an opponent a high voice because that opponent had the audacity to hit him or when Dallas Stars forward Ryan Garbutt crosses the line of physical hockey and dirty hockey like he did when he injured his former teammate and the well respected Ducks defenseman Stephane Robidas, they should be suspended. But not only should that player be suspended, he should be called out by his fellow union members. And if it’s a repeat offender or player who clearly doesn’t respect the game or other players like Cooke, then suspend him for the rest of the playoffs.
This may sound extreme but the league — as a result of the skill and heart of the players — has come too far to let dirty hockey be “playoff hockey.” The Stanley Cup playoffs are the best tournament in pro sports. Let’s keep it that way.
