TORONTO — Brendan Shanahan should have recused himself.
The NHL’s judge and jury obviously already had decided before Friday’s sham of a hearing that Duncan Keith would not be suspended for more than five games despite having thrown a concussion-inducing elbow to Daniel Sedin’s head on Wednesday night, so how in good conscience could the vice president of player safety feign objectivity entering Friday’s alleged fact-finding mission before in fact handing down — what else? — a five-game sentence to the Chicago defenseman?
This was mishandled from start to finish, beginning with the failure of referees Dan O’Halloran and Francois St. Laurent to give Keith a five-minute major and a match penalty for deliberate injury for his successful head-hunting expedition against the twin, who had nailed him earlier with a high hit that could have been a penalty.
As Marc Savard might ask, if the league won’t enforce the match penalty statute, what’s the point of keeping it in the rule book?
Thursday afternoon, Shanahan decided that the hearing for Keith would be conducted by phone, meaning the suspension could be no more than five games.
Within a couple of hours, with Sedin having left the Canucks to return from Chicago to Vancouver for a medical exam while his team traveled to Dallas, Shanahan reversed himself, calling for an in-person hearing. Optics, and all that.
Keith, however, waived his right to appear in person, instead electing to have the hearing conducted by phone.
You can’t make stuff like this up. If this were a script for TV’s “The Good Wife,” Louis Canning would have objected and had the case thrown out of court.
In the NHL, though, this is what passes as a well-functioning justice system.
The sentence was ridiculously lenient, but more disturbing, the method by which it was reached was simply ridiculous.
Shanahan never even referring to Keith’s illegal head shot — “elbowing,” instead — in his video announcement of the punishment that he quite obviously had decided a day before the hearing was even conducted.
The next thing you know, Shanahan’s bio will have him identified as a 5-foot-9 former NHL defenseman for Pittsburgh, Colorado, Edmonton, Vancouver and Detroit before later becoming the head coach of the Rangers who used Wayne Gretzky on a line with Bill Berg.
* There was more teeth-gnashing and hand-wringing, meanwhile, about the sophomoric three-ring fisticuffs at the start of Monday’s Devils-Rangers game at the Garden than over either Keith’s takeout of Sedin or Shane Doan’s drive-by elbow to Jamie Benn’s head for which the Phoenix captain got three games in the hoosegow.
So Devils coach Pete DeBoer started a fourth line of Cam Janssen, Ryan Carter and Eric Boulton? So what? Rangers coach John Tortorella has manufactured outrage that he used in a pregame meeting to rile up his posse, er, team (“They’re coming for our women and children!” he said) was beyond absurd given that on Feb. 7 at the Garden he himself had constructed a one-time-use-only line of Mike Rupp, Brian Boyle and Brandon Prust to start against New Jersey.
* It realistically appears that the only way Mats Zuccarello will continue his NHL career next season would be if the Rangers fail to qualify him on July 1, thus allowing the Norwegian to hit the open market where he might be able to attract a one-way offer as an unrestricted free agent.
Under terms of Article 10.2 (iii) of the CBA, the Rangers are required to offer the impending Zuccarello a two-way contract in order to retain his rights when his contract expires following the season. It’s hard to imagine the winger would sign that contract and risk playing for what would be relatively loose change in the AHL when compared with the money he would be able to command in Europe.
* Just wondering whether it is a written rule or an unwritten one that one must roll back his views to support the NHL collective bargaining agenda in order to work on Hockey Night in Canada?
News: Pittsburgh writers vote for Matt Cooke as the Penguins’ nominee for the Masterton Trophy.
In other news, these writers have invited Stephen Glass to chair a seminar about truth in reporting.
It’s under the radar obviously because the work has been done in Raleigh, but the outstanding job Kirk Muller has done with the Hurricanes in his first NHL head-coaching gig after replacing Paul Maurice in late November should not go overlooked.
* Apparently there’s too much pressure in Toronto after the trade deadline too, the Maple Leafs winning three of their first 12 games (3-8-1) following the cut-off date for deals.
General manager Brian Burke is looking into establishing an early end to the season for his team so the players aren’t forced to deal with the spotlight longer than necessary. Oh wait, he’s already done that.
(Legal disclaimer: No, he hasn’t. I made that up.)