Jordin Tootoo tattoo's Robidas

[Kristian]

"...The fact that Mr. Tootoo's actions resulted in an injury to his opponent also was a factor in this decision."

Why don't the executives in the NHL office understand how short sighted this sounds? It doesn't matter what a player is trying to do? If a player takes a Chris Simon like swing at another player and misses, it doesn't matter because no one was injured. These guys are stupid. Not just normal stupid but some extraordinarily moronic stupidity.

 

Couldn't agree more, whether someone gets injured on a dirt cheap play is irrelevant, the play itself is what warrants a suspension, not the resulting inury.

 

Bush league.

[Stoner]

I don't know where to come down on the injury issue. It makes sense to punish the act and not the result, but doesn't common sense dicate otherwise? I mean, if you TRY to kill your wife, are you punished the same as if you did? Speeding doesn't carry the same punishment as speeding and running over your wife. :)

 

That's right, connee. PA let it go as soon as it happened - while Drury was still bleeding on the ice... :thumbsup:

 

Seriously, I think connee is just pointing out the lack of rhyme or reason to the NHL's logic and reasoning for suspensions (and length thereof)...

 

I'm pretty sure the logic is that legal hits don't warrant suspensions. Change the rules. No blows to the head. Campbell sits too. Happy?

[Bmwolf21]

I'm pretty sure the logic is that legal hits don't warrant suspensions. Change the rules. No blows to the head. Campbell sits too. Happy?

We can keep going in circles on this, but you know damn well that there is no rhyme or reason to the NHL's system of "justice." The league apparently uses a sliding punishment scale based on injury, star power of players involved, star power of teams involved, if it impacts playoff races, the schedule of the tides, the lunar calendar and the Magic 8-ball to determine punishment. How does Tootoo get 5 games for a punch with his glove on, but Brooks Orpik gets 3 games for a boarding incident that results in a broken neck? How does Janssen get 3 games for a late hit that was only a second later than the Neil hit, but came head-on, as opposed to Neil's blind-side late hit on Drury? Simon get 25+ games for stick-swinging, ooooh, look out everyone, the NHL is serious now. That suspension was a no-brainer for the NHL - a repeat offender who assaulted a player in front of ~19,000 eyewitnesses and a DA's office considering whether to press charges. No, it wouldn't be too much of a PR disaster for the NHL to levy a 10-game ban...

 

The outlaw blows to the head/Campbell sits argument is ridiculous. You can try to rewrite history based on what you think our reactions were/should be/might be (why was no one mad at Mair? why was everyone celebrating Campbell?) but none of that means that Neil's hit was clean, nor were Tootoo's actions legal and acceptable. No one is saying outlaw hitting or clean, legal body checks, but rather that it is time to stop letting marginally-talented players like Neil, Tootoo, Simon, Tucker, Avery and Nichols, to name a few, dictate the game through bush league, head-hunting tactics.

 

Even if they outlaw hits to the head, the NHL would still allow some wiggle room/interpretation for the officials, and Campbell's hit (like Schaefer's hit on Connolly) would still be legal - as it was then and always should be. The hit on Drury, Tootoo's and Simon's actions - these things have no place in this great game, and until the league realizes that and starts taking a real stand against these thugs, then we'll keep seeing a new attack every week until the playoffs start.

[Claude Balls]

Simon get 25+ games for stick-swinging

I don't get it. Simon hits a guy in the chops with a 1 inch thick piece of hollow metal and gets 25 games. Tootoo hits a guy in the chops with a 1 inch thick gloved fist and gets 5 games. The outcome of Tootoo's hit ended up worse. He should have at least been suspended for the rest of the season. I guess using a stick rather than a semi-hard thick glove is much worse? The end results were the same, or worse in Robidas case. It's just sending a message that as long as you don't use your stick, anything goes.

[connee]

I don't know where to come down on the injury issue. It makes sense to punish the act and not the result, but doesn't common sense dicate otherwise? I mean, if you TRY to kill your wife, are you punished the same as if you did? Speeding doesn't carry the same punishment as speeding and running over your wife. :)

I'm pretty sure the logic is that legal hits don't warrant suspensions. Change the rules. No blows to the head. Campbell sits too. Happy?

Campbell stated that the goon had a right to "defend" himself, he never said it was illegal. But what he did say about this goon applied perfectly to Neil's cheap shot on Drury.

[Stoner]

No one is saying outlaw hitting or clean, legal body checks, but rather that it is time to stop letting marginally-talented players like Neil, Tootoo, Simon, Tucker, Avery and Nichols, to name a few, dictate the game through bush league, head-hunting tactics.

 

Here's my problem. Why doesn't that list include Adam Mair? It really destroys the argument.

 

You also seem to want to use a sliding scale of your own where the goons are targeted for punishment. If Lady Byng head-hunts someone, she should be gone!

 

I just find the hypocrisy most unseemly. And the jocularity. :D

[X. Benedict]

The NHL needs to get rid of the Colin Campbell system and have a panel of 3 people.

A former player, a former coach, and a former referee. All public with their names known for

a 3 yr team with each expiring in alternate years.

 

When there is a play like this they should adjudicate it with their opinions on suspensions being made public.

 

This will be called a the NHL tribunal and should be endorsed unanimously by owners, the NHLPA, and the league. That will be their only job. To add more transparency to the game and to these decisions.

 

It will also add another dimension to Hockey Reporting.

 

Any takers?

[deluca67]

Here's my problem. Why doesn't that list include Adam Mair? It really destroys the argument.

 

You also seem to want to use a sliding scale of your own where the goons are targeted for punishment. If Lady Byng head-hunts someone, she should be gone!

 

I just find the hypocrisy most unseemly. And the jocularity. :D

 

They should be. With the intent of removing players like that from the league. The league doesn't need them. If Colon Campbell could do his job then teams wouldn't feel the need to keep any around.

 

And I will throw Adam Mair in there. Cheap shots do not equal toughness.

 

There is no reason why a Chris Simon or Todd Bertuzzi should ever get to play in the NHL again. It is sad to see that the old mindsets that almost killed the NHL once are starting to slither their way back into the game. If the NHL continues this way they might as well merge with the WWE and allow chair swinging on the ice.

 

The NHL needs to get rid of the Colin Campbell system and have a panel of 3 people.

A former player, a former coach, and a former referee. All public with their names known for

a 3 yr team with each expiring in alternate years.

 

When there is a play like this they should adjudicate it with their opinions on suspensions being made public.

 

This will be called a the NHL tribunal and should be endorsed unanimously by owners, the NHLPA, and the league. That will be their only job. To add more transparency to the game and to these decisions.

 

It will also add another dimension to Hockey Reporting.

 

Any takers?

 

A better idea may be to hire someone outside of hockey. Someone not afraid to call a criminal act what it is and deal with the situaitions properly.

[Bmwolf21]

Here's my problem. Why doesn't that list include Adam Mair? It really destroys the argument.

 

You also seem to want to use a sliding scale of your own where the goons are targeted for punishment. If Lady Byng head-hunts someone, she should be gone!

 

I just find the hypocrisy most unseemly. And the jocularity. :D

Fine, add Adam to the list. Whatever. I don't know how it "destroys the argument" if I exclude him from an arbitrary list, but you seem to constantly want to focus on Adam Mair and his late hit. Personally, I don't understand your obsession with Mair, and quite frankly, it's getting a little scary. I think you should talk it out with someone before it reaches the "I hate sh!ttsburgh" level we've already seen on this board... ;)

 

As for the goons being targeted - that's a nice assumption, but it's an incorrect one. FWIW, as someone already pointed out, it's not usually the bona-fide enforcers (Peters, McGratton, Laraque) that usually perpetrate these attacks (Psycho Simon excluded.) It's usually the middleweight, wannabe tough guys, like Neil, Tucker - yes, even Mair - that have to prove how tough they are.

 

My suggestion? I would rather see a set scale, where an automatic suspension is determined by number of prior offenses and type of incident. Swing a stick at someone's head, regardless of whether they escape unscathed = X number of games. Second, third, fourth time offender? Fine, then the minimum number of games goes up. If the victim is seriously hurt - concussion, broken neck, more than a couple stitches - the player is suspended until the special 3-person committee X mentioned meets and decides the severity of the suspension.

[Chief Enabler]

The NHL needs to get rid of the Colin Campbell system and have a panel of 3 people.

A former player, a former coach, and a former referee. All public with their names known for

a 3 yr team with each expiring in alternate years.

 

When there is a play like this they should adjudicate it with their opinions on suspensions being made public.

 

 

Sounds like my town of Selectman

 

I can see it now "The Hall of Legions", headed by Tie Domi

 

In Toronto, of course. "Home of every Sabre goal to be reviewed"

[Stoner]

Fine, add Adam to the list. Whatever. I don't know how it "destroys the argument" if I exclude him from an arbitrary list, but you seem to constantly want to focus on Adam Mair and his late hit. Personally, I don't understand your obsession with Mair, and quite frankly, it's getting a little scary. I think you should talk it out with someone before it reaches the "I hate sh!ttsburgh" level we've already seen on this board... ;)

 

Are you seeing a dingy apartment, a lone bare bulb hanging from an ancient fixture, flickering candles all over the place, and hundreds of pictures of Adam Mair on the wall? Apartment 22A?

[deluca67]

Are you seeing a dingy apartment, a lone bare bulb hanging from an ancient fixture, flickering candles all over the place, and hundreds of pictures of Adam Mair on the wall? Apartment 22A?

 

You are the Chaz Reingold of hockey :D