NHL Lowers the Boom on Hanzal!!!

[dbr]

Shanahan says enough is enough and cracks down on Hanzal! No mention of the crosschecks that took out Santorelli or H. Sedin but that deliberate cross check to the face crossed the line. Citing past suspensions such as Kassian getting 8 games for careless use of the stick, Edler 3 games for not taking a better angle to deliver a body check, and Hansen 1 game for reaching for an airborne puck...

Astonishingly the dept of player safety did not treat the Hanzal cross-check to Booth as an opportunity to right every single wrong Canucks fans perceive in one fell swoop.

[Sticky]

What is a $5,000 fine to an NHL player, like fining the average joe $5.

c'mon... That's a gross exaggeration... if the average Joe is making 50k a year, Hanzals fine would equate to about 80$.

I know a few guys I would gladly pay an 80$ fine to get to crosscheck in the face...

[rats19]

What is a $5,000 fine to an NHL player, like fining the average joe $5.

c'mon... That's a gross exaggeration... if the average Joe is making 50k a year, Hanzals fine would equate to about 80$.

I know a few guys I would gladly pay an 80$ fine to get to crosscheck in the face...

Would the number grow if it was $5.00...that is the real question

[ClamRussel]

Shanahan says enough is enough and cracks down on Hanzal! No mention of the crosschecks that took out Santorelli or H. Sedin but that deliberate cross check to the face crossed the line. Citing past suspensions such as Kassian getting 8 games for careless use of the stick, Edler 3 games for not taking a better angle to deliver a body check, and Hansen 1 game for reaching for an airborne puck...

Astonishingly the dept of player safety did not treat the Hanzal cross-check to Booth as an opportunity to right every single wrong Canucks fans perceive in one fell swoop.

No but the same perp taking out 3 players via crosschecks in the same game certainly should have their attention if they can look at 2 consecutive games with Hatchet-man Kessel, ya?

Its all about being consistent dbr

[Hockey Widow]

Never mind in the same game, in the same period!

[dbr]

It would make sense if Hanzal got more. It would be nice.

But if you can't see why the league would treat cross checks delivered within the run of play differently than a golf swing delivered in a between the whistles melee then I just don't know what to say.

Same as taking injury into account, I may not agree with it but it is clearly a consideration for the league.

And don't try to take this as me saying the league is 100% fair or consistent or intelligent in their decisions.

[ClamRussel]

You're twisting this out of shape. Its not the comparison of the actual incidents but the fact Shanahan actually referenced a previous game in his video....one that did not result in a suspension, he actually shows a clip of it as evidence. There's more than one way to hurt a player...but since you brought it up. Ya, the Kessel thing looked bad right? Big deal. What would you rather have done to you, a chop to the leg or a crosscheck to the face? Anyone who's ever played the game knows what Hanzal did was chickenshit. He didn't feel like taking a bodycheck so he took off Booth's head. What Hanzal did was not a hockey play. Compare that to the suspension Hansen got going for the puck.

[dbr]

The Hansen suspension was ridiculous. Got to assume the league went into high alert about Hossa given he'd been Torres'd out of the playoffs the previous year but to me that only explains why they'd do something so stupid.

As for Hanzal to me it is textbook "how to play dirty and (pretty much) get away with it." Like Peverly chopping Bieksa down in the Finals. It's enraging that the league wants things to work this way but they are obviously not willing to create an institution with the mandate and resources to have the kind of oversight to say "this guy has been running around playing dirty/reckless, nothing earth shattering but he's going to hurt someone" and step in at that point.

So instead I'll just hope that a Canuck has taken his number and he'll get what he deserves in a future game. I doubt he drops 'me but I wouldn't be too saddened to see a Canuck get a call from the league for recklessly getting their stick up in his mug.

[mathonwy]

So instead I'll just hope that a Canuck has taken his number and he'll get what he deserves in a future game. I doubt he drops 'me but I wouldn't be too saddened to see a Canuck get a call from the league for recklessly getting their stick up in his mug.

[Listercat]

I'm sure Hanzal will get the same type of personal attention that Dustin Brown got the next time these teams meet. If the NHL won't do anything to stop this type of play then the players will. Hanzal took out 3 Canucks in that game without throwing a body check.

[ClamRussel]

The Hansen suspension was ridiculous. Got to assume the league went into high alert about Hossa given he'd been Torres'd out of the playoffs the previous year but to me that only explains why they'd do something so stupid.

I think thats exactly what they did. However, lets think about the concussion injuries Booth has had going back to the Richards' headshot. One could make the argument that derailed his career and he's never been the same player since. That was one serious headshot. If the NHL is looking after Hossa they should be protecting all players w/ serious concussion issues. Inconsistencies like this is where NHL conspiracy theories come from. Is this the difference between a concussed player on the hated Canucks vs the Wirtz owned Blackhawks?

If that Hanzal crosscheck to the face is not suspendible then the NHL is a joke.

Case in point.

[dbr]

Booth's concussion is ancient history, relatively speaking. Five years ago.

Hossa was stretchered out (iirc) of his sixteenth game back from a brutal injury on a Raffi Torres hit that put him out the rest of the season and earned Torres a monster suspension.

I'm not trying to say the acts were the same but the optics sure aren't.

Hanzal's cross check was dirty but he basically got his stick up to avoid getting hit - it's a rat move but it's not Jesse Boulerice on Ryan Kesler.

All in all if the league had said "here's a player who was suspended earlier this season and whose stickwork injured three players, he's been suspended one game" I would think that was great. But it's clearly not how they operate. So they fined him for the worst one and he gets away with the rest.

[Topper]

The chuck to the ribs Hanzel gave Henrik and Santorelli has been going on since man begat woman.