TORONTO – With all the recent focus on hits to the head following last Saturday’s violent collision at the Coliseum in which Doug Weight concussed Brandon Sutter with what is classified as a legal hit in the NHL, it is beyond mind-boggling that notorious repeat offender Chris Pronger was allowed to escape a suspension, let alone a penalty, for the shoulder blow he delivered to Pavel Datsyuk’s head on Wednesday night.
The puck was some 40 feet away on the boards when Datsyuk came across the line and appeared to first encounter defenseman Francois Beauchemin. Pronger came second against the off-balance Detroit center and got the shoulder high into the head.
There was no call on the play from the refereeing duo of Mike Leggo and Steve Kozari. There was apparently no review of the play by NHL Central. Anaheim and Detroit played on. So did the league and so did Pronger, who was suspended twice in the 2007 playoffs for hits to the head -incredibly getting the same one-game sentence the second time as the first, apparently getting time off for bad behavior – and then for eight games at the end of last season for stepping on Ryan Kesler with his skate.
Honestly, I think despite all of his good intentions and dedication to the league, Colin Campbell has begun to look at supplemental discipline through blinders. I do think that severe suspensions catch the attention of not only the offender, but the rest of the league. I do think maximum sentences serve as a deterrent.
The problem is, there aren’t enough of them. It’s not all Campbell’s fault, of course, Whenever there is a decision to be rendered on a suspension, the league’s executive VP is inevitably bombarded with calls from the perpetrator’s general manager, arguing emphatically for a lenient sentence while the victim’s GM is calling for life behind bars.
It is as if competing attorneys in a criminal case were permitted to have ex parte discussions with the presiding judge in which they argued their respective positions. The NHL system is archaic. It places far too much responsibility and far too much of a burden on an individual who works contemporaneously with general managers on a variety of issues and as such cannot be expected to alienate himself from one of his constituencies. This must change.
The NHL should debate outlawing all hits to the head. But first, the NHL must enforce the regulations that already exist. The league must be willing to deliver severe suspensions for intent to injure. A 15-game minimum for a head blow delivered away from the puck wouldn’t be a bad place to start.
No one’s son should ever be hurt.
No son’s father should have to go through what Brent Sutter is enduring now, with his son, Brandon, injured the way he was last week.
And it is more than understandable for Brent Sutter to be upset over the blow. But with all due respect, Brent did not take that stance on Aug. 29, 2007 at Ufa, when his son concussed Alexei Cherepanov with a leaping forearm blow to the head after hunting him all the way up the ice following what he believed a slew-foot from the Russian.
This was the second game of the Canada-Russia 2007 Summit Series. Cherepanov missed the final six. Brandon Sutter was not kind at the time in his character assessment of Cherepanov, the Rangers first-round draft pick who died Oct. 13 after collapsing on the ice while playing in Russia. Brent Sutter, who coached Team Canada to a 7-0-1 series victory, did not seem to have so much of a problem with that hit to the head.
Just saying.