This article is pretty much spot on:
But now the violence is at unprecedented heights and still the Commissioner is silent. Too bad, because someone should be out front here and at least giving theimpressionthat he’s attempting to lead!
Add the dangerous hit that Chicago’sBrent Sopellaid on Anaheim’sCorey Perryand the obvious retaliation byJames WisniewskionBrent Seabrook– a blow to the head that appeared to knock his former teammate unconscious even before he fell to the ice — to the growing pile of videos featuring the “reckless” (NHL’s word) hit onBrian Campbellby the now multi-time offenderAlex Ovechkin,Matt Cooke‘sunpunished blindside head shot onBoston’sMarc Savard, theMike Richardshit on David Booth, andSteve Downie‘sunconscionable and twisted takedownfrom behind ofSidney Crosby, and its clear that the NHL has a leadership problem that shouldn’t start and stop with Colin Campbell.
It is hard to argue with this. And whats worse, it seems to be coming from the top:
Bettman, who fast became a student of the NHL’s inglorious history, should take note of that. His league has a crisis on its collective hands and he appears to be doing nothing about it.
Now, we use the word “appears” because something odd happened in the last 24 hours. First, Campbell gave an interview to Canada’s national newspaper,The Globe and Mail, confirming rumors that the league was about to “fast track” the recent rule cooked up by the GMs regarding blows to the head and the penalties that could or should be called or at least reviewed by Campbell and his office. Heeven went so far as to tellGlobe reporterEric Duhatschekthat the league was preparing a DVD to show the 30 team administrators and all the players what will and won’t be a penalty under the proposed rule change. Campbell also said that if rushing the rule through saved even one player from a concussion, then the fast-tracking effort “would be worth it.”
But almost before the ink was dry on that story, Campbell’s right hand man,Mike Murphy, was on a Toronto-based radio station saying he didn’t think that the “fast tracking” was likely. Later that same day, Campbell appeared on the league’s own radio station and “back tracked” down Route 180 so fast that he’s fortunate he wasn’t injured in a collision with himself. Whether that turn around was his own or imposed from above, well, we’ll leave it for you to decide.
“I don’t anticipate doing anything with a penalty call on the ice right now,” Campbell said with what we swear was the sound of screeching tires in the background. “I think that would be a difficult thing to consistently administer at this point in time.
“That’s not our issue,” he added. “Our issue probably is making sure that some of the hits we’ve experienced can be dealt with from the supplemental discipline aspect. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish at the moment.”
Moments don’t last very long in the NHL, and our guess is that Campbell’s order came from above. He has been reversed before, more than once, without anyone taking credit or blame. When you see words like “right now” and “at this point in time” and “not our issue” and “probably,” it’s fairly reasonable to assume that he’s been told to alter his stance and fast. That happened when he started handing out real punishment in the form of 15-, 20- and 25-game suspensions a few years back and quickly went back to two- to four-gamers and the now absurdly low fines like the one Downie, a repeat offender, got for nearly breaking Crosby’s leg in a takedown that Crosby never saw coming.
Hockey is an acquired taste in most of the country. It is hard to find places where ice occurs naturally long enough for people to come to the game naturally. It is even harder to afford the costs of rink hockey for most people. Fortunately, hockey as a game has a lot to recommend it. It is faster than basketball, more hard hitting than football and involves more strategy than baseball. The success of the game in the late eighties and early nineties shows that it can be grown, that casual fans can learn to appreciate it. The amazing ratings for the Olymic tournament show that fans today enjoy good hockey.
But the NHL has squandered that momentum and goodwill with a series of ugly incidents that have gone either unpunished our ludicrously lightly punished. And that is Bettman’s fault. As pointed out above, the last time the league’s disciplinarian tried to reign in rough behavior, he himself was reeled back in by the league. Bettman has given in to the tiny-dicked troglodytes who assuage their own feelings of sexual confusion and inadequacy by arguing that pushing a defenseless player into the boards, or ramming a man’s head into the glass with your elbow, or cracking someone’s skull with a blindside elbow is “tough” instead of cowardly.
There is no game more physical, more graceful, nor exciting than well played hockey. Americans saw that during the Olympics. But if Bettman continues to listen to those who thin that players who cannot skate, pass, shoot, or think should be allowed to make up for their deficiencies through mindless thuggery, the league will never be able to demonstrate that the the public at large. Worse, if things continue to spiral out of control liek they have the last few months, someone is going to be crippled or killed on the ice. And the NHL will look back at these last few weeks and wonder why they didn’t do something about this before it was too late. And they will conveniently forget that the answers is because they chose not to.
leanleft
Kevin
tgirsch
Kevin T. Keith
Judd
“Bettman has given in to the tiny-dicked troglodytes who assuage their own feelings of sexual confusion and inadequacy by arguing that pushing a defenseless player into the boards, or ramming a man’s head into the glass with your elbow, or cracking someone’s skull with a blindside elbow is “tough” instead of cowardly.”
Gotta take exception to that part. Being in the hotbead of hockey, I can guarantee you that the hits that have happened have been unanimously criticized by anyone with hockey knowledge. There have been significant calls to change elbow and shoulder pads which are now so hard it’s like wearing rocks. Also, there have been calls for longer suspensions to actually send a message.
The biggest issue at this time however, is that the players no longer respect each other. They don’t seem to care. Add to that the fact that the commissioner is about as much of an idiot that I have ever seen in hockey and you have a bad mix.
I don’t know, Big U.
Wizniewski said he did nothing wrong. So did Ovi. The Caps coach was livid that Ovi got any suspension. I don’t have a link, but after the Ovi hit on Campbell, one of the NBC talking heads said that the hit was clean and that he didn’t want to take hitting out of the game. Melrose said something similar on the radio the other day. Campbell didn’t suspend that Penguin head hunter, and then he went out and did it again. I’ve heard commentators say that taking head shots out of the game would be bad for it. It seems to me that there is a loud, vocal and powerful contingent in hockey that likes the thuggery.
A sample of what is being said in Canada.
http://communities.canada.com/EDMONTONJOURNAL/blogs/hockey/archive/2010/03/14/don-cherry-to-matt-cooke-quot-you-re-a-gutless-backstabbing-like-fu-i-can-t-say-what-i-called-him-quot.aspx
Hockey is the only sport in which everybody, including the officials, just allow the game to pause for two players to square off. Many hockey fans don’t seem to find this an oddity, and the seem to get offensive when I raise the point. Mind you, this is before I mention anything about banning fighting, I’m simply talking about, “Isn’t it kind of strange that…”
Now, if we actually do get to the talk of banning fighting and reducing violence in the sport, many become irrate and dismiss any such suggestion, ad hominem, because I’m not really a big hockey fan, so I can’t possibly understand how integral fighting actually is in the sport. You can’t ban it; it will actually get worse if you don’t let them fight, blah, blah, blah. Relax, fellas, don’t get your pink satin blazer, festooned with teal flamingoes in a bunch.
Here’s what most people don’t know – and most hockey fans don’t know (because they aren’t NBA fans like me!). The NBA already had this fucking problem; they fixed it and they surpassed baseball in popularity for a while, partially as a result! There used to be bench-clearing brawls all. the. fucking. time. in, say, the 70s. Everybody knows about the Kermit Washington punch to Rudy T that dislodged Rudy’s eye socket. …How about when peaceful, Muslim, Kareem Abdul Jaabar strolled up to Kent Benson and just clocked him in face while Benson had his hands down, knocking Benson out cold and breaking his own hand in the process. Oh, BTW, this happened literally two minutes into Benson’s pro basketball career.
Like in hockey, NBA teams used to regularly roster “enforcers”. And,like as in hockey, many just accepted fighting as part of the NBA landscape for a good while. But, once the league really clamped down everything changed for the better and the more lucrative.
Oh, and don’t call these hockey players thugs. See, they’re outdoorsman looking white guys, so they’re just rough, tough, man’s men. Now, the NBA – that league that is almost devoid of violence whatsoever – its players are thugs. See, they are black with tattoos and braids and they listen to rap music. Glad we’re clear on that now.
whoops, open tag.
This lack of comment editing is going to kill me!
digg:
Fixed the open tag for ya. It wasn’t open, but rather mismatched. You opened bold and closed italics.
Digg,
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to back up the concept that as fighting has been decreased and clamped down on, that head shots, cheap shots, etc. have significantly increased. And there is no question that stickwork is worse now than it has ever been (we are almost on par with the European leagues regarding the ability to skewer someone without getting caught). I’m not a huge fan of fighting but I would be willing to say that, in hockey, it has its place. That’s why it has been penalized within the game for decades….because it was seen as a legitimate part of the game.
Hockey used to be a free-wheeling, fast and entertaining game. Players were given room to move because excessive clutching, hooking, etc. could result in someone being challenged to a fight. Now clutching, hooking, mauling stars is okay because there are no repercussions.
Unfortunately, anti-fighting individuals will always see fighting as done by goons. Whereas people who have watched and grown up with hockey will know that if the instigator rule was removed, things like the Ovechkin hit or the Cooke hit would not have happened because of the knowledge that payback would be coming.