The NHL Players’ Association already has acknowledged informally its obligation to change the culture in hockey that allows, if not promotes, the predatory head-hunting that has damaged the opening weeks of the Stanley Cup playoffs and portions of the past few regular seasons.
“As players, we’ve already talked about our responsibility to become more involved in the entire issue, and that’s going to begin with talks about our responsibility to each other when we’re on the ice competing,” the Rangers’ Brad Richards, who is held in utmost regard throughout the league, told Slap Shots on Friday.
“We’re definitely going to want to have more of a role in the supplementary discipline process going forward in the next [collective bargaining] agreement, but when it comes to it, the league can police it all it wants but we have a responsibility to each other as hockey players to stop this head-hunting.
“And just because it’s April 15 isn’t a reason to allow players to behave that way at this time of year or for the league to be lenient when they do. Players are still at risk.”
Those within the industry who have attempted to minimize the damage done on the ice during this year’s first round by harkening back to the bad old days are misremembering.
For though the history of the playoffs is littered with examples of malicious blows, pack-mentality assaults and bench-clearing brawls, players launching themselves at opponents’ heads represents an entirely new, different and more disturbing dynamic that never before was part of the accepted fabric of the game.
It is a mystery why the executives, who unilaterally control this process on Sixth Avenue in New York and Bay Street in Toronto, haven’t exerted their authority to the fullest extent to eliminate such dangerous behavior. It’s a mystery that $2,500 fines or suspensions of a handful of games would be regarded as effective deterrents even when all evidence indicates otherwise.
It has also been a mystery why the NHLPA has acted more like legal aid in rushing to defend the perpetrators of malicious acts in supplementary discipline hearings instead of responding forcefully on behalf of the victims and, by extension, the greater good of the game.
And it remains to be seen whether the 25-game sentence handed down yesterday to Raffi Torres represents a message or just the league’s ability to hit one off a tee.
“One of the union’s worries has always been that guys would get harsh suspensions for plays that were more accidental,” Richards said. “But I think now with all the video we all have access to, you can pretty much determine intent.
“There are going to be collisions. There’s going to a shoulder or an elbow to the head, and while that’s not OK and does need to be dealt with, there’s a difference between those plays and the ones where guys launch themselves or aim high sticks at your head. Those are the ones that [should be] dealt with by ultimately handing out much stiffer suspensions.
“There’s no question that this issue is going to be an important one for the players in the talks with the league this summer and it’s going to be a major issue within our own group.
“I think we’ve all seen enough of this, all of us — the league, the teams and the players — to recognize the actual effect this head-hunting and these concussions have had on lives and on families.
“This is no laughing matter.”
* What is a laughing matter is Toronto general manager Brian Burke comparing complaints about the hooliganism and the league’s tepid response to it to people complaining about the rain at Woodstock, because brain injuries and mud baths, well those are comparable inconveniences.
The Maple Leafs, by the way, have been prominently cited as a potential landing spot for Roberto Luongo when the Canucks, as expected, attempt to deal the veteran goaltender following the season.
The problem, though, is Luongo has 10 years remaining on one of those front-loaded contracts that Burke went on the record to oppose in testifying on behalf of the NHL in the Ilya Kovalchuk circumvention hearing in 2010.
Luongo is working on a 12-year deal worth $63.998 million, under which he will be paid 90 percent of the contract’s value — all but $3.618M — over the first nine years, while carrying an artificially depressed cap hit of $5.333.333M per year. Luongo will be 43 when the contract ends in 2022.
“I object as a general manager to those contracts,” Burke testified according to a transcript of the hearing reviewed by Slap Shots. “I object to all of these contracts, not just to Kovy’s. I think it’s [expletive deleted]. “In my opinion these [contracts] create artificial cap room and it’s not a level playing field. …I think it’s circumvention. I think it’s an outrage. “I won’t do them. I won’t do a contract like this.” I don’t view this as proper conduct under the CBA.”
So if Burke won’t do one, he surely wouldn’t undermine the CBA by trading for one, would he?