Re: NHL 2012: The Chase for the Cup
This is ridiculous. The amount of time a player potentially misses should have no bearing on the length of suspension.
Maybe Shanny taken too many shots to the head?
I agree and I'd actually take it a bit further.
I hate the notion that whether a player gets back up or not can influence whether a penalty is a 2 or a 5. The severity of the penalty should be 100% based upon the infraction, not the result of the infraction. The hit on Smith (Phoenix goalie) the other night is a prime example. Definitely a 2, but becomes a 5 because Smith lays on the ice for a while. Shea Weber also - because the cheap shot didn't result in an injury it's okay? I thought the goal was to change behavior?
I had an incident in a youth game this past season (I was a bantam HC) where an opposing player followed my defenseman (not my son) into the end boards and checked him from behind, charged him, prison raped him. This was by far the worst cfb I've seen in youth hockey and I've seen a few nasty ones. The opposing player followed my player at full speed, made no attempt on the puck and extended his arms to launch my player into the end boards - all from behind.
As I was walking out to see if my player was alive, I said to the ref, "That's a 5, right?" Now I'm honestly not one to ride the officials (believe me, or not). I don't get worked up over missed offsides or a bad tripping call here or there. I typically only get worked up when safety is at issue.
Anyway, at that moment, my player got up and made his way to the bench. The ref went over to the box and made his call and then came over to talk to me. As the 2:00 showed up on the scoreboard, I said "You've gotta be ****ing kidding me."
He explained that because my player "popped right up," that the penalty was only a 2. I said, "That can't be the criteria for a major. Are you saying that because my player isn't paralyzed or dead that it's a minor? What a ****ing joke."
He said that was the call, it's what he has been instructed to do in that situation and I could have a penalty if I wanted to keep swearing at him. I said, go ahead. He did.
{EDIT: Whether a coach yells at the ref can't influence a call when safety is at issue either. So before any of you try to blame this on me: 1) I hadn't said anything to him before this, 2) I didn't swear at him till after he had made the call & 3) I'd do it again - can't stand incompetent officials when they aren't protecting players.}
My player told me that he got right up coz he didn't want to be a p-u-s-s-y (his word) or let the other kid know that he had hurt him - even though he was in pain. So, had my player laid there pretending to be injured, we could have gotten a 5 and probably had the kid kicked out.
Another example happened last year when one of my players cleanly checked another player and the kid got hurt. No penalty was called on the check, but the kid broke his leg and had to be taken off on a stretcher. The refs retro-actively assessed a 5 minute and game DQ because the kid got hurt - on a clean play. Talk about confusing a player. "Yes, what you did was within the rules and what you were coached to do, but because a freak accident occurred, you're out and you can sit out the next game too."
Is that what we want for the criteria? You think there aren't coaches who will milk that and try to get other teams' best players kicked out of games? See the example of the little league coach who paid one of his players $25 to throw balls at the autistic kid on his own team for an example of how depraved youth coaches can be.
Anyway, rant over. It's just that there seems to be the same mentality at the NHL level.
