I think the suspension on Brendan Smith for his hit on Ben Smith, given out by Brendan Shanahan, was further proof that the league does not know what it is doing. Even with best intentions they prove to make mistakes that seem small now, but set themselves up for bigger and costlier blunders down the road.
The worst part of this, besides too many of the same names closely together, is that Brendan Smith had EXCELLENT LEGAL FORM IN HIS HIT!!! The only thing illegal about this hit was under the new rules; he made contact with the head. We all know that there was no way for him to avoid making contact with the head because he aimed at the shoulder of a moving target that moved out of the way but left his head there. When a player dekes with 2/3rds of a second left there isn’t a person on the planet that can avoid making contact when you are going over 20 miles per hour and have a third of a second to move. Even if he did move out of the way, then why does the player get to play chicken and force the defenseman to let him go unabated to the goal? It seems as if the defenseman Smith is taking too much heat on this one.
I don’t put 100% of the blame on Ben Smith, but I refuse to put more than 50% of the blame on Brendan Smith either. I will get to what Smith deserved in a minute, but first let us think about what happened in another situation. When I play hockey, there are times where I put my head in a similar position to try and move the puck, and I have been elbowed. I never once got up and said, hey mother f@#&-er why did you have your shoulder or elbows at their natural level!!!! HOW DARE YOU KEEP YOUR EXTREMITIES WHERE THEY BELONG!!!
If you lower your head, you are taking the risk of it making contact with lower body parts. It is just plain negligent to do so when you know a hit is coming. It could even be considered cheating in the future if you do it to DRAW SUSPENSIONS AND FIVE MINUTE MAJORS!!! We know people dive, so why wouldn't people dive like this?
Smith deserved punishment under the letter of the law, and I just want to make sure that these punishments remain proportional and fair. I will say right of the bat, that I do not believe injuries are required to make a suspension occur nor should they be ignored in lengthening the sentence. I believe the five minute major was a big punishment in and of itself, and I expect that to be called routinely. I just don't want the likely outcome, where the only time the five minutes is called is when the player embellishes or is legitimately hurt. If you are going to call the major for contact to the head, you better do it 100% of the time. The NHL has proven conclusively that they will never be able to do this with any rule.
Therefore it is my opinion that if they use a five minute major that they should count this as a significant part of the suspension. This obviously goes even further with game misconducts or match penalties. Unless they allow clubs to sub in a player for Smith, they are penalizing the team a game right there and giving such a momentum swing that the majority of the time the receiving team will lose. The games the player misses will be easier to win than the one where they get tossed without some sort of adjustment there, so I hate the idea of taking them out of the game. I would rather leave the guy in, and if they have an enforcer on the other team, well the problem will take care of itself. After that you suspend the player for his hit. Otherwise the penalty is proportionally upon the club and fan base for the act. This is heinous when the hit is the fault of the other player.
In Smith's case, he basically received a one game suspension right then and there and cost the Wings a meaningless game. Because of this, I am okay with the punishment being delayed to the regular season for him because the meaning is heavier, but five games is an absurd for a first time offender. This first time offender also had his only offense be that a player zigged when he should have zagged. I would have been fine with a two game suspension of the regular season on par with the other preseason suspensions or a five game preseason suspension. Five games at the start of the career is pretty insane. I know I would never ask for that if I was the one hit. I know, because I have had head injuries do to similar circumstances.
I think the league is once again going overboard to start and most likely will ease off of it in time for the playoffs. The fact that he was punished is not the issue; the fact that he was punished so severely for something I could see embellished in the future is the issue.
I still think of how Marian Hossa received no match penalty in the playoffs for a hit that was identical to Ovechkin’s hit on Brian Campbell just a few weeks prior in the regular season, then went on to score the winning goal that turned a series around. It can be argued that if they called that consistently then
The league took another step towards mockery while taking a step towards player safety. Can we please move towards a safer league without making it impossible for teams to deliver a good effort? Can we do it taking into account the possibility of equal fault? Can we do it without costing any team from making the playoffs or going further on, due to misjudgment of an incident? Can we please just do it consistently, and not change from situation to situation?
I don't think this first group of suspensions and calls prove that we can. I love you Shanny, but I think you need to go back to the drawing board and figure out a better framework so you don't make more disproportional mistakes.
Addendum: Shanahan explains, that his (Ben Smith) head position did not significantly change. I would like to point out that his head position did change in relation to his left shoulder, which was the target. His head was protected by his left shoulder until he dropped it back and opened his body allowing the natural and pre-chosen trajectory to follow into his head instead of his shoulder. He still put himself into a vulnerable position by moving his shoulders.
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