We were sold on it because of the politics, inconsistencies and injustices that plagued Colin Campbell’s reign. The inconsistencies that caused several of the league’s top players and the media in general to question how decisions were taken and if the NHL really had a structured approach to dishing out suspensions.
Turns out, they did not. The NHL announced on Monday that Ryan Malone would not be suspended for his blatant hit to the head on Habs defenceman Chris Campoli.
As fans, we stood by watching blatant infractions that could easily have been sanctioned under the ‘attempts to injure’ rule go unpunished, we stood by watching scandalous revelations after scandalous revelations and repeat offenders walking away unscathed. Are we still counting the games Marc Savard, Sindey Crosby and company have missed out on? Or is that way too 2010 for us?
Those were the Colin Campbell days, so stop the count. I’m serious. Don’t waste your time. The days where the NHL’s head of discipline celebrates the cup on the ice with the winning team are over.
The days where Colin Campbell sent angry emails to the head of refereeing about not reserving preferential treatment to his son are over. The politics are over I tell you.
The NHL eventually got tired of people like me (and you for that matter) bringing up all these quite valid points last summer. Gone was Colin Campbell and in came Brendan Shanahan, a man who calls himself ”Head of player safety” and of course, off went the preseason, with 10 million suspensions (not the real number) and we were impressed!
Wow, no politics, no BS.
Martin Brodeur, who is no fool, brought it up first; criticizing the pace, saying we’d soon complain about inconsistencies and irregularities, and oh how we laughed.
Foot in mouth.
Even Bruins fans have made parallels between the Malone/Campoli vs Norton/Rome hit and Ryan Malone along with the entire Lightning staff were well on their way to plan the first 10 games without Malone. The hit was such a blatant charge, a straight line to a player who didn’t have the puck, head down. Yes look at it again, Campoli didn’t have the puck on his stick and Malone’s straight line charge to Campoli’s head crowned a night full of belligerent play from Malone.
The NHL head of player safety decided, instead, to blame Campoli for having his head down. Of course there’s no way the Habs defenceman could’ve had his head up given the fact his head was looking for the puck Teddy Purcell had just loosened up due to a stick check.
I spoke to a member of the Penguins coverage on the decision and his answer on the reasoning behind it stank of you know what. Politics.
”Make no mistake about it, if the Clarke MacArthur hit had never happened, Malone would have been suspended. Shanahan felt the heat on the MacArthur hit (it should have never been a suspension) and what he felt were players complaining about too many grey zones. This is a direct message to the players saying ‘I get it’, but unfortunately it was the wrong call and it ended up with players realizing they’d have to deal with disciplinary politics again.”
And that’s the wrong call.
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