This is important because it gives some positive reinforcement for the players compared to the slew of needed suspensions. There have been two additional ones since my last post.
The first was Detroit Brendan Smith and his reckless play in Chicago.
For those of you who don't hear the term "match penalty" that much, it is essentially an ejection from the game because the player intended to cause bodily harm on their opponent. It is pretty rare to see.
Interesting note: Brendan Smith was assigned to the AHL Grand Rapids. I don't know what this means for his suspension time. Will it be served in the AHL? Does it mean he can't play in 5 NHL games whenever he's called up? Will he ever get called up because of that? I honestly don't know. I will have to investigate.
I will say he is joining Atlanta Thrasher fan favorite Garnett Exelby (X!) there. Looks like things are going well for Garnett these days.
The second is Toronto's Clarke MacArthur.
Now, I agree that the head was targeted and such, but I also feel that Justin Abdelkader committed a diving penalty. The way his arms were thrust around like that. He was not penalized for diving, but did get a cross checking penalty. And I have to assume it was for that play and not a delayed call.
You can only see one referee in the replay and his arm is not raised. Also, Toronto still has a goalie in the net meaning they had not pulled him for an extra attacker. Perhaps they didn't have enough possession of the puck to safely pull the tender or perhaps they just said "forget it, there's only a few seconds left, let's just go to overtime and not risk losing in regulation." But let's assume it was called for that hit.
Cross checking? Bad call. Diving? A much better one. The stick was clearly on the ice nullifying the cross check. But diving is embellishing one's actions to gain attention in order to draw a penalty against the opponent, regardless of if a penalty has occurred or not.
But the most significant video of the preseason to come from Shanahan was released recently as well. It explains a non-decision.
I was curious if close plays that some feel merited a suspension would get the same video treatment as suspensions do. I think they should (at least for the time being). And Shanahan released such a video. Malone will not be suspended.
I agree with this decision, though I would add a few elements not mentioned in the video explanation. Campoli's head was clearly upright when he reached the edge of the faceoff circle. About a second later, he is hit at the faceoff dot. That's fifteen feet, not a huge distance and within a second, not a lot of time. And he did significantly change his position, leaning outward towards the puck. The best angle of this is the view from behind where it shows that his head is significantly stretching out and Malone clipped that side. It would have been difficult to avoid hitting his head.
This type of video is essential right now. It was an injury with a head hit and a match penalty. I think the match penalty might have been a little much, but so be it. Eventually, all of these videos won't be necessary and just a simple statement from the office regarding their reasoning should suffice. Althought, I really hope they keep them coming. I'm very much in favor of them.
Final note: Sean Avery has cleared on waivers from the New York Rangers. Basically, the team decided not to put him on the final roster. Because he is still under contract, he was put on waivers for 24 hours. That means that any NHL team that wanted him could have him. And no one did. So he is reassigned to the AHL with the Rangers affiliate, the Conneticutt Whale. As of right now, Sean Avery is no longer an NHL player.
Today is a good day.
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