NHL Suspends More Players

Brendan Shanahan, the NHL's disciplinarian, has certainly had a busy week.

And last night was no exception.

Minnesota forward Brad Staubitz and Columbus defenseman James Wisniewski were suspended indefinitely today pending a hearing and the completion of a review by the NHL's department of player safety.

The suspensions come from the same game, but different incidents.

Staubitz received a major penalty and game misconduct for checking from behind at 4:24 into the third period.

Wisniewski, meanwhile, received a minor penalty for an illegal check to the head of Minnesota forward Cal Clutterbuck at 20:00 of the third period, as in the very end of the game.

These are the third and fourth suspensions doled out this preseason. The other two were for the remainder of the preseason. One also had the first game of the regular season while the other is for five games in the regular season. These latest are the only ones with an indefinate sentence so far.

Thank you Shanahan. You are setting the standard. If my theory on behavior modification is correct, we will see many more suspensions early on (possibly till December if not the entire season). That is assuming Shanahan remains fair in suspending for similar offenses.

He should err on the side of suspending someone who didn't deserve it than not suspending someone who didn't. And that's for gray area offenses, not obvious stuff. This isn't the court of law. In the United States at least, it is better to let a guilty person go free than convict an innocent man. The whole innocent till proven guilty. The double-jeopardy. The appeals. The precidents. All of it is to protect the innocent even at the expense of letting guilty parties go. Yes, I'm aware of recent cases and stand by my statement. The system is not perfect and yes, there will be mistakes made, but it is designed to err in favor of the accussed.

But this isn't legal court, so forget all that. This is NHL discipline which has been lackluster for years under Campbell. There is nothing to say that questionable actions can't be disciplined. Even accidental incidents can be subject to more severve discipline. Case in point: high-sticking. If it's just a high stick and the referee catches it, that's a two minute minor. Then, the ref checks to see if there is blood. Any blood, and it's a double minor. Nothing has changed as far as the intend of the guilty party, but the results are what matters.

It is high time for a change. The hits will still happen, but the injuries will be curtailed. And it looks like Shanahan is the man for the job. His recent track record (this preseason) supports that.

I won't go over my thoughts in more detail on this again. They haven't changed.

Keep it up Brendan!

TTFN