Are the NHL players getting Shanny's message?
by Kevin van Steendelaar on Oct 2, 2011 12:19 PM EDT
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Last night, we saw yet another head shot as the Tampa Bay Lightning's Ryan Malone laid an elbow into Chris Campoli. There is no question that the head was targeted, but there will be those who will argue that there was no actual intent by the Lightning winger. They would be wrong in doing so.
For those who saw the game, Malone ran rampant throughout the night. Whether someone urinated in his orange juice Saturday morning is undetermined, but his frustrations certainly hit a peak in the third period.
NHL Senior VP Brendan Shanahan, aka the new sheriff in town, will certainly be taking the hit into review and we can expect a meeting and decision by Monday evening. As far as I can see, Malone would be a first time offender, and unfortunately for Habs fans, Shanahan cannot factor Malone's whole game activities into his decision.
Shanahan has already issued a series of suspensions in the last week, from head shots to leaving the bench to fight, totaling 22 games which has put a massive donation to the players relief fund.
As much as I like Shanahan's actions, and his detailed video explanations for the offenses, it has to be questioned whether or not it is going to change things.
When you see a series of incidents condensed into the preseason alone, one has to wonder how bad it will become in the regular season when the intensity of the players will rise as the season progresses?
Whether the first time offenders learn their lesson will remain to be seen. We already know the league has it's share of repeat offenders (James Wisniewski, Matt Cooke), who clearly didn't get it during the limp wristed rule of Colin Campbell. One Twitter follower put it this way, "They're like children, they will continue to do it, hoping the parent will eventually cave."
Hopefully the new sheriff/new parent's zero-tolerance attitude gets the point across on all accounts, and carries it forward that big name players are not exempted to a minimal fine. That was something Campbell erroneously avoided in his tenure.
The VP is even taking into account any non-calls on the ice, as was the case of the Toronto Maple Leafs' Clarke MacArthur's hit to the head of the Detroit Red Wings' Justin Abdelkader Thursday night. Shanahan is clearly sending a message to the players in this manner, and in the process telling the on-ice officials to do their job correctly.
The real problem will come on the borderline calls, that could be deemed unintentional by many coaches, players or GMs. No matter what the league does, players are going to get hit in the head playing hockey be it accidental or intentional. Shanahan does detail whether of not an offending player could have avoided a hit, but if he continues to drop the hammer on even the slightest infraction, it will only be a matter of time before the league has to yet again revisit the wording on a rule that is not even two years old.
One also has to wonder how long GMs and ownership will tolerate Shanahan's decision making if it seems that the players are not getting the message, and team's start seeing star players (ie: their money makers) getting suspended or continuing to get hurt. While Shanahan's efforts are for the benefit of the game, the knuckle draggers of the league may force him out before the changes can hold.
We'll likely need to see a full year of Shanahan's decision making, to gauge if there was any improvement, but if the last week of pre-season is any indication, we could get our answer by December.
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I’m of two minds when it comes to guessing when player behavior will change (assuming Shanahan remains consistent with clear explanations).
it’s going to take either:
1) the whole season (including punishment doled out in the playoffs) for players to believe Shanahan is serious.
2) 10 years, when almost all the players in the league are people who didn’t grow up being encouraged to hit like Scott Stevens.
What Shanahan is doing is the right thing, but it will take time to change the culture of the game. These incidents happen in the heat of action, and most often are not premeditated, although Malone’s in game gestures share some similarities with Chara’s deed last March.
One thing that I have noticed on a few occasions, and I would hope Shanahan displays it in a video before the season begins, is players actually slowing up before hits, taking a little off the pedal before contact. This would promote safer hits just as much as the deterrent in my opinion.
As many have stated, Shanahan’s rule will meet it’s biggest test in the regular season, once a star player is the actual perpetrator and pressure is put on Brendan to be more lenient. I fear however, that it will take years and many more incidents to alter how players react on the ice. It won’t happen overnight, or in a single season. It will come about only once this type of judgement and sanction trickles down to the next generation of players. Today’s youngsters, must be raised with more awareness and be encouraged not to imitate their idols.
The question is, can that even happen if the NHL reverts to old standards.
I think Elliotte Friedman was saying earlier in the week that Shanahan plans on releasing a video of several players easing up on players in vulnerable positions very soon. Basically saying; see, it’s working.
I honestly think the reason it looks so bad right now is because the NHL is finally being consistent and Shanahan takes no prisoners. I love it.
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by Andrew Berkshire on Oct 2, 2011 3:56 PM EDT up reply actions
There have been head shot issues in hockey since Newsy Lalonde was clubbing Joe Hall over the head back in 1913. The difference today is media and 24 hour sports channels making everyone more aware. Had today’s coverage existed in hockey 100 years ago, the sport would have been banned outright or…..been tenfold as popular. The perceived increase in incidents is simply an illusion.
Kudos to Shanahan and his work. His reply to cranky owners and fans should be quick and succinct: THE BIG PICTURE!
I don’t think it is media, I think it is concussions. There was plenty of media when Scott Stevens laid out head shots on a nightly basis. THe Lindros/Kariya hits would be illegal under Shanahan’s rules, yet they were viewed as “hockey plays” a decade ago.
With the increased awareness of CTE in the NFL and the finding of the head trauma in Probert and Reggie Fleming, the multiple enforcer deaths this summer and Crosby missing 9 months the NHL no longer views head shots as acceptable.
Money > Suspensions
I believe the players themselves see Shanahan as a joke. I don’t know if any of them has actually said anything, but from my perspective as a business major, what Shanahan is doing will NOT stop all the headshots and illegal hits. You can argue this all you want, but all professional athletes are about making money. It’s all about the $$$, for any YOUNG player. Once a player establishes themselves and have made enough dough, they then play hockey because they love it and want to win. And if you wanna argue that, go ahead, it’s arguable, of course, but here are 3 examples. Drew Doughty, he’s in it for the money. If he knows what’s right, he would’ve taken a smaller paycheck so the Kings could sign other free agents and build a better team. Mark Recchi, he was one of the better players in the league being paid for the 3rd liner wages. Albeit he’s not selfish and is a standup guy, but he’s in it to win it, not to bankrupt the owner of the Bruins. And here’s an example from a different sport. If you follow the NFL at all, then you know the situation with Carson Palmer. Carson Palmer is a Pro Bowl/All Star type of quarterback who made about $40 M in 8 years of pro football. He is currently 31 years old and just wants to win and play the game so he refuses to play for the Bengals and are wanting to be traded.
Point is that what the NHL should be doing is handing out big fines, since most of the crimes committed are by young players anyways. Fine them 15% of their contract, then 25% then 40% of their contract, and I can bet you that no one would deliver anymore headshots. Ryan Malone makes $5.5 M this season, ok fine him 15% of his contract, $875,000, I bet he’ll be more careful the next time he sees a defenseless Campoli.
And disagree all you want, but suspensions to me has always been a joke, especially in hockey and baseball where there are 82 games and 162 games respectively.
Pat McAfee for President 2016
$ fined = (salary/82)*(#games suspension)
Wisniewski for example was suspended 8 games, correct? and lost roughly 10% of his salary…so I’m not sure what you’re arguing, since the money factor is already in play.
E.G. If say the median suspension thus far is 4 games, a player WILL think twice before doing a head shot, since another suspension could cost another 4 games, thus forfeiting a total of 10% salary.
Also, every game missed lowers the chances that the player will reach whatever bonus clauses in contract – be it points, games played, whatever. It also decreases the chances, in any self-respecting player’s mind, of making the playoffs, which is another source of payout.
Wisniewski lost half a million dollars for that hit. So I have no idea what KBUnitz is saying. If anyone thinks Wiz won’t be thinking about that half a million the next time he’s about to do something stupid, they’re crazy.
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by Andrew Berkshire on Oct 2, 2011 3:57 PM EDT up reply actions
Yup, I don’t get an ounce of what KBUnitz is saying either. I’m no business major, but hockey is also a what-goes-round-comes-round business. If a player’s career could end with a cheap shot, I’d tend to think they would be more concerned about long term ramifications than money lost due to suspensions.
Moral of the story – not sure I’d let KBU plan my financial future!
Wiz
March 2010 – 8 games for hit on Brent Seabrook = >286K
Oct 2010 – 2 games for giving Avery the bird = 78K
Already $350K in the hole for his actions prior to his latest incident. So a 10% hit won;t mount to much for him, and clearly Wiz was not concerned about his bank account when he hit Clutterrbuck.
This is a case where Shanny probably should have been a little harder in terms of length of suspension.
Kevin van Steendelaar
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by Kevin van Steendelaar on Oct 2, 2011 5:14 PM EDT up reply actions
The players will learn. Every season the NFL implements tougher rules and the players complain, they get fined and these actions disappear.
You never see a QB take a head shot anymore. Next season we won’t see WR taking head shots either. As long as they are consistent and do not back off the second it is a star player being suspended, it will take. If they waiver, nothing will change.
Context is important
You have to recognize also that those penalties were handed out in a different officiating climate. Clearly Shanahan’s reign of terror (or justice) is giving more of such penalties. In the previous climate a player could forget about the possibility of suspensions and accompanying salary loss easier than compared with today’s.
A fine system would make no impact on it.
Taking a player out of the game impacts the team and it’s performance as well. The player then realizes his actions have an effect on his teammates and not just his wallet.
A good example was Campbell’s ridiculously low-ball fine on Ovechkin. All he was out was an extra bottle of Krystal at a Moscow strip club.
Kevin van Steendelaar
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but don't forget...
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by Kevin van Steendelaar on Oct 2, 2011 5:16 PM EDT up reply actions
It is easy to say the 500k won’t affect Wisniewski’s future decisions, but the guy who lost the 500k might disagree.
or his agent, who probably lost his cut. Then again those weasels probably get their coin up front.
Kevin van Steendelaar
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by Kevin van Steendelaar on Oct 2, 2011 5:21 PM EDT up reply actions
I just hope that they stick to this. There is no room in the game for what Malone did last night. NONE.
Maybe he’s worried about Connolly taking icetime from him? Trying to get himself jacked in the last preseason game to ready himself for the regular season? Don’t know.
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That sounds pretty on the ball to me.
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by Andrew Berkshire on Oct 2, 2011 11:44 PM EDT up reply actions
This is encouraging, though the points have been mentioned by a lot of you over the summer. Nice to see an outside perspective putting the Habs as the 5th-best (I think. Pittsburgh and Washington are yet to be named).team in the conference.
http://drivingplay.blogspot.com/2011/10/driving-play-season-preview-10-7-near.html
Sounds about right — Washington, Pittsburgh, and Tampa would be ahead (not necessarily by much, though) and then it depends how much of a comeback you think NJ will do. I could see an argument for Buffalo being ahead of Montreal, but of the rest of the top 9, Philly hamstrung themselves, Boston rode not-to-be-repeated goaltending and a really good shooting streak. The Rangers are popular because they added the big fish, but they weren’t all that good outside the crease.
Welp, looks like Shanahan’s strong stance on headshots didn’t even last into the regular season after all.
Because it’s silly to believe the jersey worn from the hittee matters, right? Right?
I don’t understand NHL justice. How did Macarthur get suspended, but not Malone?
ANd they wonder why Hab fans go crazy in regards to suspensions.
I dunno; Shanahan may have caved to pressure earlier than expected, or else the rules might allow for a hit like that.
Either way, if this hit isn’t suspendable, then the NHL isn’t serious about preventing headshots and this is all a waste of time and effort.
How long was Campoli leaning like that? Anyone get a frame by frame on it?
They expect players to react within a half second for interference. I have to believe this was over 1 second and almost 2 seconds of Campoli in that general position.
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It was a second or slightly less I would say.
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by Andrew Berkshire on Oct 3, 2011 11:58 AM EDT up reply actions
What an crock!
Because Campoli moved his head, they feel it was deliberate. Absolute BS!! Campoli was being dogged out of the corner and more focused on keeping his balance. Meanwhile, instead of moving more to his left, Malone tosses out his elbow.
So I guess Campoli was thinking,“Oh here comes Malone, I’ll just move my head this way and..”
Should have realized who the GM of the Lightning is.
Shame on you Brendan Shanahan, and shame on the NHL.
Kevin van Steendelaar
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but don't forget...
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by Kevin van Steendelaar on Oct 3, 2011 12:47 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
correction
Meant to say “wasn’t deliberate” in the first sentence.
Kevin van Steendelaar
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but don't forget...
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by Kevin van Steendelaar on Oct 3, 2011 12:48 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
NOTHING has changed
This is how Shanahan described the Macarthur hit.
http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=0&id=125761
Macarthur was suspended under the following…
“A hit resulting in contact with an opponents head, where the head is targeted and the
principal point of contact, is not permitted”
“Targeting is defined as “intentional” or “reckless”
Shanahan goes onto say he did not agree with Macarthur’s assertion that it was not “intentional” we still consider this “reckless”.
Can somebody please explain how the exact same thing can not be said in regard to Malone and Campoli?
Intent allows them to loophole everything. Chara was not suspended based on intent. Kostopolous was suspended when he smoked Van Ryn not because of intent, because of “recklessness”. Now I hear that Malone didn’t target Campoli’s head, but is not reckless as well and the onus is placed on Campoli?
Nothing has changed.
I guess reckless hits aren’t permitted unless the player is hitting a Hab or Leaf (the Neil hit should have been given at least a token suspension).
Pretty amazing. Every pundit (McKenzie, Friedman) that I read expected a suspension, the player himself expects a suspension and says as much, and nothing.
It shouldn’t even matter that Campoli turned his head as he was about to be hit. It’s not like he could have put it somewhere else to avoid getting crunched. Chris is right again about the league shellgaming the context to suit their decision, although we haven’t truly heard an official word from Shanahan yet. Anyone notice Malone’s feet leaving the ice to make the hit?
Well, at least they released a statement: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=590940
It’s clear that the head was the principal point of contact, but I don’t agree that the vulnerable position was “immediately prior”.
Really worrying that we’re back to looking for reasons not to suspend people as a way to backslide without seeming to, especially by putting the blame right back on the victim once again.
Turns out the NHL is not all that serious about head shots after all.
Campoli reached for the puck? What happened to reckless? What about the fact that there was a penalty on the play? They refuse to give up the option of control in regards to precedent and we will continue to see inconsistencies in their judgements. They have set up the trap door should a situation arise in which they do not want to suspend, no different than Chara when they pulled the table cloth and emphasized “intent” over everything else.
I don’t understand why they don’t just remove the judgement like they have with high sticks. They don’t care if the high stick is on purpose, they give you a penalty for “being responsible” for your actions.
Shanahan is no different, just less conflict of interest than Campbell.
What is the counterfactual hit?
Looking at the check, I cannot see what kind of hit it would have been had he not bent over to reach for the puck. Malone’s arms were UP, and malone jumps into the check. Why cant people give hip or body checks any more, those are fantastic entertainment.
Instead, all we get are the elbow-pad/shoulder-pad hits.
I have to admit that after looking at the hit several more times, the contact is eerily similar to that of Steve Moore on Markus Naslund all those years ago. While there surely was no Rule 48 in effect at the time, I was on record then as having said it was not a dirty hit on Moore’s part, and that Naslund’s final movements made that type of head contact pretty much unavoidable.
To be consistent though, the difference today is the rule that is now in place prohibiting these types of hits and the various descriptions they fall under. Campoli is in a vulnerable position. I’m not sure why it absolves Malone from taking advantage of it. He leaves his feet to make the hit, and contact to the head would have happened regardless of Campoli’s slight turning away.
There will always be grey areas, but in this case I think evidence should come into play that Malone was head-hunting the entire game.
It is curious why the Habs seem to be on the wrong side of these rulings. I am not going to try to create a conspiracy, but I thought this was open and shut.
Jesus, even PJ Stock thought it would be a guaranteed suspension.
Just bad luck. Seriously, I like to be facetious about it, but the sample size is just too small. I just don’t think the NHL cares enough about the Habs to give them special treatment one way or another.
Well if you already have them out…
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by Andrew Berkshire on Oct 3, 2011 4:28 PM EDT up reply actions
Disappointing, but I can’t say I didn’t expect it.
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by Andrew Berkshire on Oct 3, 2011 3:16 PM EDT reply actions
Me too. Give a ine game suspension, for what it’s worth, but geez, I tought we wouldn’t see Shanahan cave before december or somehing…
The Malone hit was a textbook example of the kind of “fringe” hits Dryden was talking about when he said the NHL needs to reframe their mindset around the “don’t touch the head” motto.
Hopefully we are all just over reeacting and. This is simpley a bump in the road. Shanahan’s real test is from march onward. So I guess we should take a deep breath and wait and see.
Still, buddy is 6’4 and he jumped a hunching Campoli…
I think the problem with today’s decision came from two areas:
1) Campoli did lean forward. Malone may have had time to let up, but the NHL clearly is looking for a hit to the head that they can show as “legal” to appease the reactionaries.
2) Brodeur, MacArthur and a nameless GM speaking out about too much punishment in the last week has obviously rattled NHL ops. They probably didn’t expect reationaries to come out of the woodwork so soon. Could be that Shanahan is already feeling heat on the job front.
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by Andrew Berkshire on Oct 3, 2011 4:07 PM EDT up reply actions
My guess is this is all about number 2.
See. Not ALL hits are illegal. Shanahan came out really strong, but the politics seem to have already curtailed his behaviour.
It’s too bad. I really hope that’s not the case.
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by Andrew Berkshire on Oct 3, 2011 8:12 PM EDT up reply actions
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