Drew Doughty watched other playoff games this season and couldn’t believe that George Parros
Cheap Tanner Lee Jersey , the NHL’s discipline czar, had suspended him for a head shot.
”I saw four hits last night that deserved more than that,” the Los Angeles Kings defenseman said.
Doughty’s one-game suspension was the first of several in the first round for a hit to the head of an opponent. Toronto’s Nazem Kadri got three games and
Winnipeg’s Josh Morrissey and Nashville’s Ryan Hartman got one game each.
Washington’s Tom Wilson and Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov were among those who got
off without significant punishment.
The criticism, from Columbus to Colorado and from New Jersey to Los Angeles, was loud enough that the NHL’s department of player safety put out a video last
week explaining its reasoning for suspending Doughty and Hartman but not
Kucherov or Predators center Ryan Johansen.
”The illegal check to the head rule is often misunderstood or misstated
Cheap P.J. Hall Jersey ,” the league said in the video. ”Illegal checks to the head and legal full body hits often look similar at first glance because
the difference between legal and illegal can be a matter of inches in a sport
that moves fast.”
Discontent over the goalie interference rule has been grabbing headlines for weeks, but the head shot discussion carries far more serious implications for a
league still grappling with how best to protect its players. What’s acceptable
has evolved from the early days of hockey through Scott Stevens’ then-legal
crushing blow on Eric Lindros in 2000 to today, where checks to the head are
parsed frame-by-frame to determine if a line was crossed. The NHL, too, is still
facing a federal class-action concussion lawsuit filed by former players
alleging it failed to warn them about the health risks associated with head
injuries.
Meeting with Associated Press Sports Editors last week
C.C. Sabathia Jersey , NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman insisted there was nothing new about the subject. Asked about player safety, Bettman said Parros is
off to good start in the former enforcer’s first season as vice president of
player safety. He said he is proud of player safety’s transparency in the form
of videos detailing the reasons for suspending a player.
”Sometimes we get accused of splitting hairs, but that’s exactly what they have to do,” Bettman said. ”I think he’s reached the appropriate conclusion when
it’s been a hockey play that doesn’t transcend the rules and I think he’s been
appropriately punitive in cases where it warranted it. There’s never going to be
a shortage of critics of what they do.”
Doughty, a finalist for the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman
Cheap Alex McGough Jersey , said he hit Vegas forward William Carrier’s shoulder first before his head in Game 1. Kings coach John Stevens added: ”As
long as I’m on the earth, I’m going to agree to disagree with that
decision.”
The league video emphasized that an illegal check to the head concerns a player’s head being the main point of contact, not the first point of contact.
Based on experience, the league said, a player’s head snapping back on these
kinds of hits indicates significant head contact.
Los Angeles general manager Rob Blake
Clayton Kershaw Jersey , who worked under Brendan Shanahan in the department of player safety from 2010-2013, said it’s a tough job while at the
same time reiterating the organization was unhappy with the suspension of
Doughty. Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen was upset forward Josh Anderson was
ejected from Game 1 against Washington for boarding Michal Kempny and called a
hit to the head of Alexander Wennberg from Washington’s Tom Wilson that got only
a minor penalty ”dangerous.”
Wilson was not given a hearing or suspended. Wennberg missed Games 2, 3 and 4 and the hit was not included in the NHL’s explanation video.
Columbus coach John Tortorella didn’t want to weigh in on the lack of punishment for Wilson, a common refrain across the NHL because nothing can be
done after the fact. For a more specific reason, Bettman doesn’t weigh in on
suspensions because any appeals go to him. He does look at suspension videos
before they are issued.
”I watch as a fan to make sure they make sense
Cheap Fred Warner Jersey ,” Bettman said. ”I want to make sure the videos we send out are clear.”
”I think player safety as a whole has done an extraordinarily good job of changing the culture,” Bettman said.” We have players not making certain types
of hits anymore. We have players who are more accountable for their conduct and
understand it and I believe that they’ve been consistent.”
—
AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker in Nashville, Tennessee, and Sports Deputy Editor for Newsgathering Howie Rumberg in New York contributed.
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