The first major rules infractions of the season took place Monday in separate games. The NHL's vaunted Wheel of Justice got its first test.
Naturally, it was a rather embarrassing failure.
Let's look at the videotape. First up, a Monday afternoon incident in New York involving Islander James Wisniewski and Ranger agitator Sean Avery. This might be considered NSFW in some circles.
Hard to argue that this isn't a smart thing for an NHL player to do. Of course, NHL players do dumb stuff all the time and they don't get suspended.
Keep that in mind. Here is a hit by Chicago's Niklas Hjalmarsson Monday night on Buffalo Sabre Jason Pominville.
With the heavy emphasis on headshots, this is an automatic suspension.
Both players -- Wisniewski and Hjalmarsson -- got two-game suspensions.
Huh?
I get that not all crimes are equal. Just because they draw equal suspensions doesn't mean the league thinks they were even-up on the scale of sin.
Of course, that isn't how things look. How stupid does the NHL look to the Average Joe when they dole out idiotically equal suspensions in cases like this?
Oh, by the way, let's not forget that Sean Avery once got six games for a sex joke.
I guess that means that sex joke > phallic gesture = blatant headshot.
Disappointing.
1 comment:
"With the heavy emphasis on headshots, this is an automatic suspension."
The Hjalmarsson hit was not a headshot, watch the replay it is shoulder to shoulder-blade connection. It was a board and he did take liberties with a player in a vulnerable position so I can see validity in the suspension.
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