Boyes of Buffalo Now Suspended

Brad Boyes of the Buffalo Sabres joins the list of players suspended this preseason. He is number 5. Two of the previous suspentions will last the remainder of the preseason (one regular season game for the first offense with five reg. games for the other) while two are indefinate suspensions pending a hearing.

Boyes will not miss any regular season action as his suspension will be 2 pre-season games.

This suspension comes with a video explanation from Shanahan.



This is a brilliant move. One of my complaints of the past under the Colin Campbell system was the secret formula for suspensions. No one knew why he dealt out punishment the way he did.

Now, there is a video showing the incident with an explanation on how the decision was reached.

As long as he stays consistant with the punishments for similar incidents, I am loving Shanahan. This is exactly what the League needed. And you know I've thought that for a while. I've said it. It never should have come to this point, but Shanahan has to dig his way out of a hole to get people to trust him again and he is certainly doing that with these videos.

Oh yeah. Videos. With an 's'.

Here's one explaining the first suspension of the preseason on the Flames PL^3.



And a video on the Flyers' Shelley.



This man could save the NHL's reputation on suspensions and horrible discipline for the past several years. He uses the same language to explain each hit (the secret formula revealed!) and isn't afraid to suspend when players violate a rule, even unintentionally.

There is no video yet on the suspensions pending the hearing of Minnesota's Staubitz and Columbus' Wisniewski. I'm assuming that's because the decision hasn't been reached. Makes sense. I do wonder if he will issue a video on non-calls and no suspensions for questionable hits. I'm not aware of any so far this preseason that have people questioning his ability to be fair in justice, but I admit I don't keep track of every game and pulse of its fans.

This new era of discipline truly started with the Rome suspension for the hit on Horton during the playoffs last year. Mike Murphy reached the decision, but Shanahan was involved.

Now, you know that I've talked about the need to condition behavior before. I won't repeat it nor link to it again (not counting the link already in this post). But I remember that I was opposed to the Rome suspension at the time. Frankly, I had my reasons. Given the circumstances and history of punishment from the League up to that point, he perhaps shouldn't have been when this occurred. The League was so all over the place on suspensions, it didn't make sense to me then.

Looking at the hit under the new standards with Shanahan's explanation, Rome should be suspended. Horton did not see the hit coming, Rome had time to adjust the severity of the hit, and the head was a principle point of contact (perhaps not targeted, but still the principle point of contact). Plus, there was significant injury.

Here it is again. Think about what you've heard Shanahan say when he revealed the "Head Hit Suspension Formula".

--Was the head the principle point of contact?

--Does the victim make any sudden movements just prior to or simultaneous with the hit? (The onus is then on the checker not to hit him in the head.)



Under Shanahan, I can clearly see why he would get a suspension. I maintain my previous believe that the suspension seemed steep at the time given the lack of consistant discipline throughout Campbell's tenure, particularly the 2010-2011 season (cough, Chara, cough). But the Rome suspension seems totally justifiable in the new Shanahan era.

I do wish they hadn't changed the suspension guidelines in the middle of the Stanley Cup playoffs. That just doesn't seem fair.

But I may have predicted this back in June.

I did a blog post on an interview with Mike Murphy who was tapped by Colin Campbell to deliever punishment in the Finals before Shanahan took over.

The entire interview was Murphy talking about the people he consulted and how the decision to suspend Rome was Murphy's. And how Murphy used the words "my" and "mine" a whole lot instead of "the League".

Here are some quotes I made then analyzing the situation.

"I will say, there seems to be an undertone of Murphy's statements. All this "my choice", "my decision" stuff. I suspect it's one of two things. Either this is something others in NHL Operations have wanted to do for a while and were unable to under Campbell (as I suspected earlier) or Murphy thinks it is the wrong decision and is regretting it. Murphy might just be the scape goat and he knows it. End the Campbell era and get the Shanhan started on a new note of strictness.

"I believe the first is more likely because while Murphy continously said it was his decision, his call, mine-mine-mine [but] it comes with lots and lots of name dropping. He mentions a list of people he consulted giving the impression that others approved this decision and would have made the same one. He does slightly distance himself from Campbell too. Not terribly far (don't want to bite the hand that feeds you), but enough to give the impression it is not what Campbell would have done.

"I guess my hope is that Rome is setting precedent, not adhearing to it. If the battle line has been drawn, I can understand that and even be on board. While there was no intent, the play was late and there was serious injury. If players know that suspension is a possible outcome, it will make the game safer. If the Rome / Horton incident is not setting precedent but rather conforming to established protecal, I have issue.

"As previously stated in another post, I do not believe the playoffs are the place to set precedent though. It may have been a mistake to not punish severely during the season, but you have to continue being a pansy about it during the playoffs. It's not fair to change the game (even off the ice) when you've been playing under one set of rules and punishments since September. Suck it up, created a video montage to release in the offseason, and use that to explain how late hits resulting in injury will no longer be tolerated in 2011-2012."

Damn, I'm good!

Because it does appear that Rome was setting the new standard.

There was a video released in the offseason about the new standards on hits. (I said late hits resulting in injury, but I was extrodinarily close.)

Shanahan has shown he will be tough and not shy away from suspending players.

Murphy was a scape goat (it appears) to take any heat away from Shanahan regarding the suspension to Rome that seemed questionable at the time while also setting a precident to how the new NHL Player Safety and Hockey Operations Office will operate giving Shanahan a clean slate to start the 2011-2012 season.

That's all I have to say right now on this. Oh, except that Horton told NHL.com late this week that he is ready to get back into games. So good news there. Obviously, the Bruins are going to take it slow, but he is participating in some practices.