The Sedin & Keith Affair

[coco_canuck]

Would it work if they went for 20, 40, 80 game suspensions??

Who the fuck knows.

I liked what Henrik proposed.

He said make elbowing, hits to the head, and other violent infractions a double-minor, and call 5-minute majors on bad hits more consistently.

Unless they go with 20-40 game suspensions, which won't happen, the best way to tackle the issue is make the in-game cost of taking a dirty run at someone high so they think twice before doing something that may cost them the game.

[Strangelove]

I don't see the problem with 40 game suspensions when there's obvious + successful intent to injure.

I mean if they really want suspensions to have an affect toward curbing the cheap stuff.

The problem with trying to fix the problem with bigger in-game penalties is that there are games where neither team really cares much about the two points (like the Canucks/Hawks game).

[Cornuck]

I mean if they really want suspensions to have an affect toward curbing the cheap stuff.

Not allowing them to practice with the team would help with the penalty aspect of suspensions as well.

[coco_canuck]

I mean if they really want suspensions to have an affect toward curbing the cheap stuff.

The problem with trying to fix the problem with bigger in-game penalties is that there are games where neither team really cares much about the two points (like the Canucks/Hawks game).

I don't disagree, but I don't see an appetite for longer suspensions.

There were serious discussions going on about how Wiesnewski's 8-game suspension cost the Jackets the season.

When there's legitimate concern about the offender's team feeling the impact of a suspension, you know they're not seriously considering harsher suspensions.

[Strangelove]

I mean if they really want suspensions to have an affect toward curbing the cheap stuff.

Not allowing them to practice with the team would help with the penalty aspect of suspensions as well.

AGREED.

[Strangelove]

I mean if they really want suspensions to have an affect toward curbing the cheap stuff.

The problem with trying to fix the problem with bigger in-game penalties is that there are games where neither team really cares much about the two points (like the Canucks/Hawks game).

I don't disagree, but I don't see an appetite for longer suspensions.

There were serious discussions going on about how Wiesnewski's 8-game suspension cost the Jackets the season.

When there's legitimate concern about the offender's team feeling the impact of a suspension, you know they're not seriously considering harsher suspensions.

Well then we best get used to vicious cheap shots in my ridiculously humble opinion.

[coco_canuck]

Well then we best get used to vicious cheap shots in my ridiculously humble opinion.

Pretty much.

Rather than giving out harsher penalties, they're looking at ways to make the game less dangerous with rule changes, which IMO, is bad for the game long-term.

We're already seeing defensive hockey take over the league, and slowing the game down and creating more restrictions will only perpetuate a more defensive posture.

I'd like to see them get tougher on some hits with longer suspensions, and I want to see harsher in-game penalties.

The point about tougher in-game penalties not mattering in blow outs is a good one, but at least it should help significantly decrease the likelihood of players taking as many dirty runs at the opposition in tight and important games.

No system is going to be perfect, but what we have right now is too far from being perfect.

[Cornuck]

I'd like to see them get tougher on some hits with longer suspensions, and I want to see harsher in-game penalties.

Which would fit in great with their stated goals of 'protecting the players' and 'generating offense'. Except that the theory upsets the parity applecart - and we can't have that, can we?

[Listercat]

I don't disagree with what Henrik proposed as far as it went.

If there is no longer term penalty to the guilty player who suffers more? The guy is concussed or blows a knee because of a cheap shot and is out of his team's lineup for say 5 games minimum and likely more. The guilty party is back on the ice the next day. Who hurts more in the long term?

If the players know upfront they face not only stiffer in game penalties but a minimum of 10 games in suspension, unless they are totally brain dead to begin with,. they have to realize the effect "losing it" for an instant could have on the team as well as themselves.

If Carcillo or John Scott had been in the Hawks lineup that night you can bet your ass one of both would have been on the ice whenever Kassian or Bieksa was. ( I know Scott is no longer with the Hawks) Would anyone have gottten to Keith, not likely unless the Canucks started running Patty Kane and a Claude Lemieux situation developed. Can you see the Hawk bench telling Keith to go out and face the music? No in this lifetime. If as Cherry intimates the "players police themselves" all we would see is enforce vs enforcer.

The Hawks have called out the Canucks for the past 3 years and the guy with the biggest mouth was the farthest away from the fray. Super mouth Bolland was out at the blue line keeping an eye on that vaunted Viking scrapper Henrik Sedin!!

[wafflecombine]

I honestly don't think that the "deterrent" part of this whole program doesn't kick in till about 10 games.

I think in the off-season Shanny and his team will review the year, make some decisions, adjust and then come in next year.

I know there has been some criticism but on whole, I am happy with many of the changes. Discipline isn't a black box anymore. The transparency isn't perfect now but its in a whole different solar system from the Cambell era.

Now if the reffs would just enforce the frackin rules without this "game management" bs!!!

[Fred]

How is it that threats against Daniel were made on the ice and no one could hear them....if there's any racial slurs made on the ice seems like every one hears them ?

[Jovocop]

How is it that threats against Daniel were made on the ice and no one could hear them....if there's any racial slurs made on the ice seems like every one hears them ?

Selective hearing??

[Fred]

For a lot of NHL watchers, the five-game suspension given to Duncan Keith for trying to remove the head of Daniel Sedin was no surprise.

Sure, he got more than a slap on the wrist. But Keith gets to sit for five games and rest, as the Blackhawks head back into the playoffs. As of Monday, they are six points ahead of eighth place, and barring a total collapse, will make it into the post-season.

The Blackhawks will miss one of their top players, but this set-back shouldn’t overly tax a veteran, smart team.









Thank you for voting!


Too light 74% (74 votes)


Too heavy 9% (9 votes)


Just about right 15% (15 votes)


Hard to say 2% (2 votes)


Total Votes: 100


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Maybe the NHL should think about implementing specific rules: one head shot equals X number of games lost. So that the moment all NHL fans saw the YouTube video of Sedin getting clobbered, there would be little question how long Keith will have to sit. That way new NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan won’t have to think too much and will be shielded from too much criticism.

Will Keith learn from his public shaming? Or was he let off too easily for such a brutal hit?

The Montreal Gazette’s Jack Todd says the suspensions means that Shanahan is not much tougher than his predecessor in terms of impact.


Duncan Keith gets a nice little vacation before the playoffs. The Canucks lose Sedin. And every thug in the league gets the message: The NHL does not mean business. The thugs go on playing, their victims can’t even play video games.

Todd is right. Five games is barely a blip on the entire season radar and will not make any other players with bad intentions step back and think about their actions. Big deal, so I sit for five games? At least I got rid of one of my main rivals’ best player!

The Hockey News‘ Adam Proteau says NHL justice is a joke, compared to what the NFL does when one of its own does something disgraceful.

Witness the penalty levied on the New Orleans Saints in the Bounty scandal. Proteau argues that the NFL didn’t hesitate in dropping an H bomb, even though the Saints and New Orleans have had some tough times after Hurricane Katrina.

“The NFL didn’t care about optics, or what some people believed. Goodell didn’t hide behind nebulous jargon like “the fabric” of the sport, the way some hockey people do when they don’t have any other rational explanation for hockey’s wayward traditions.

It is true. Hockey is a hotbed of old-fashioned thinking, more so than any other professional sports league in North America. Exhibit A: Don Cherry!

Predictable is the word used by the Globe and Mail’s Eric Duhatschek, echoing Proteau.

Maybe if the NHL started with 10 games, the offenders would think twice, says Duhatschek. He is right: start with 10, then double it each subsequent offence. Before you know it, the head shots would end and all would be happy.

The always entertaining Larry Brooks of the New York Post says that Shanahan was too lenient. Brooksy details how the incident was mishandled from the beginning, as both referees failed to give Keith a match penalty.

Huffington Post’s Mark Leiren-Young says that the five-gamer is a slap on the wrist. Leiren-Young also fears that Sedin may have to follow the recent path taken by Sidney Crosby and lose a lot of games. Let us hope he is wrong, but you just never know when it comes to concussions.

Finally, here is a chart that shows the decline in the average number of suspensions, in Shanahan’s first year as NHL sheriff.

Watch Brendan Shanahan explain his ruling:

[wafflecombine]

This was year one of the new regime. I still say the Shanny team will work hard in the off-season, adjust and have an improved product. I would have loved to see a heavy 10 game suspension from Keith but lets be honest, it wasn't in the cards. Shanny was tougher out of the gate and the NHL brass and GMs reigned him in some.

As much as I wanted a stiffer penalty, I also don't want the rules being made up on the fly like they were last year. 4 games for Rome was a conspiracy and it totally changed the entire flow of that playoff.

[Fred]

As a fan I'm interested in what's going to happen to O'Hallaran, his 2 min call is nothing less than atrocious and cast doubts about his future/ability. As one journalists said let the press question them after the game...would straighten these guys out pretty quick