The NHL’s decision not to so much as hold a hearing to review Rick Nash’s leaping high elbow on the Panthers’ Tomas Kopecky on Thursday night at the Garden created such an uproar, the league’s Department of Player Safety ultimately released a video explaining the decision.
But the decision not to discipline Nash wasn’t even close to the NHL’s most egregious oversight of the last 10 days. That distinction goes to VP Brendan Shanahan’s call not to suspend the Flyers’ Brayden Schenn for his dangerous leaping charge that sent a defenseless Peter Harrold of the Devils crashing against the end boards late in the third period of last Friday’s game in Philadelphia.
The league can break down its decisions not to discipline players for such dangerous hits by citing as many mitigating factors as can be cobbled together. We were told on the Nash video that Kopecky had turned his body just prior to impact. Well, yes, a player completing a follow-through on a shot will often do that.
We were also instructed via an interview done by Shanahan that the outside world places far too much emphasis on whether a player actually leaves his feet to deliver a check — as did both Nash and Schenn — in attempting to analyze whether a hit merits league action.
But there’s good reason why people outside the cocoon expect a player to be disciplined for leaving his feet on a hit, and that’s because there’s never a legitimate reason to do so. Who is the player that has ever been taught by a coach to leave his feet to throw a check?
The NHL still cannot get it through its collective brain that players’ brains are worth protecting at essentially any cost. The league still doesn’t get that. Neither does a small percentage of athletes who engage in predatory acts.
But the lengths the league will go to and the contortions through which NHL jurists will go in order to avoid suspending players for blows to the head fit with the stubborn effort to retain a “culture” that is largely imaginary.
Bench-clearing brawls were once part of the culture. Fights in the penalty box, at one time shared by both clubs with players separated by only a uniformed guard — Oh, the bouts I saw growing up between Vic Hadfield and Henri Richard in the box at the old Garden; now that was hockey! — were once part of the culture. Spearing Europeans was once part of the culture.
It is impossible for the NHL to be viewed credibly as an operation dedicated to minimizing concussions when it continues to not only allow but to promote fighting as part of the game.
If Florida neophyte Eric Selleck staggering off the ice on Tuesday with a concussion after taking a pair of right hands from the Hurricanes’ Kevin Westgarth in a bout instigated by the Panther in his first NHL game, no less, was anyone’s example of the game’s culture in the 21st Century, then Sixth Avenue is hopelessly caught in a time warp.
Two years ago, when Ryan McDonagh was elbowed in the jaw by Matt Cooke, the Rangers’ defenseman was sent to a quiet room in Pittsburgh so his condition could be measured. A few weeks ago, when McDonagh was plowed face-first into the glass by Max Pacioretty in Montreal, that NHL protocol had long since faded out of existence.
Let’s make this clear. I don’t believe for a moment Shanahan — or anyone else employed by the NHL — cares less about the safety and health of the players than I do, or any writer or media person does. I also am quite certain Shanahan’s decisions aren’t influenced at all by team affiliations.
I do believe, however, the default position of the league is to search for reasons not to exonerate rather than prosecute. I believe the league is conditioned to be lenient with even the most egregious of recidivists.
The league’s default positions are based upon the flawed principle that a “culture” needs protection, when, in fact, it’s the players who deserve protection, even from themselves.
* The question isn’t whether perpetual bubble team Dallas will make rentals Jaromir Jagr (who leads the team in scoring), Brenden Morrow, Derek Roy and Eric Nystrom available, the question is whether the Stars will begin a meaningful overhaul by dangling Loui Eriksson?
Because if they do, the Rangers would be mighty interested.
So does this Islanders’ slide turn general manager Garth Snow into a seller, or will the club stay the course with prospective free agents Mark Streit, Lubomir Visnovsky and Brad Boyes?
* Finally, this is not a commentary on the people on air as much as the policy guiding them, but the NHL Network would be a far more compelling watch if it didn’t act as an arm of the NHL PR office.
A few hours watching the MLB Network should be enough to teach the NHL people what they — and the audience — need to know.