By Allan Muir

Pretty much everyone who saw Lars Eller lying face down in a pool of his own blood on Thursday night was horrified by the results of Eric Gryba’s devastating open ice hit. But there weren’t many, outside of Montreal loyalists who looked at that collision and thought it was the sort of play that needed to be eliminated from the NHL.

Apparently that number swelled by at least one today as the Ottawa defender was handed a two-game suspension by Brendan Shanahan for what he called an “illegal check to the head of Eller.”

No doubt this was a tough call for the NHL’s chief disciplinarian. Arguably the toughest he’d faced all season. Despite the injury suffered by Eller, there was no black or white in this incident. Watch the replay a dozen times and you won’t see incontrovertible proof of Eller’s head being the primary point of contact – -or of an innocent hit gone awry — unless that’s exactly what you’re looking to see.

Read More…

By Allan Muir

There’s nothing wrong with a player protecting himself. Brendan Shanahan pretty much called it an inalienable right in the video explaining defensive contact to the head that the league released just a couple of weeks back.

But, as with most things, there’s a right way to go about it and a wrong way. And dissuading an opponent by leading with your elbow, Gordie Howe-style? Yeah, that’s going to get you hauled in front of Sheriff Shanny, a man who is unlikely to accept a plea of “old-time hockey.”

Read More…

By Allan Muir

A five-game suspension for Ryan White? Now we’re starting to get somewhere.

Montreal’s blunt object was banished to the sidelines for all but the final game of the regular season by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety after a flat-out stupid hit on Philadelphia’s Kent Huskins on Monday night.

It probably didn’t take too many video reviews for Brendan Shanahan and crew to recognize that this was one of the easier calls they’ve faced this season. Huskins was skating the puck out from behind his own net and had just dished it off when White drew a bead on him, then slammed his shoulder directly into Huskins’ chin. The force of the blow left Huskins with a concussion.

Read More…

By Allan Muir

The way Brendan Shanahan saw it, Anton Volchenkov had a choice. With Brad Marchand squarely in his sights, he could have blasted the Boston winger with a legal check, or he could have done something stupid.

Volchenkov went with Plan B. And so the New Jersey defender will sit out four critical stretch games.

Shanahan’s video explanation captured what everyone who watched the play saw. This was a cheap shot that could, and should, have been avoided.

“Rather than make a full body check, Volchenkov extends his elbow, making significant contact to the side of Marchand’s head,” Shanahan said. “Although Marchand…is stopping and turning his head away from Volchenkov to avoid the full force of the impending check, that doesn’t contribute or explain the reckless elbow contact to the head on what could’ve been a legal collision. He sees Marchand clearly, and if anything, Marchand’s actions just prior to contact forced Volchenkov to extend his elbow even further.”

Read More…

By Allan Muir

The NHL’s Department of Player Safety found its missing teeth — soaking in a glass of lukewarm water and Poli-Dent, no doubt — and slapped them into its gaping maw just in time to take a two-game bite out of Alexander Edler’s season.

In the wake of the Rick Nash decision earlier in the day, it was reasonable to assume an air of leniency had descended over the DPS and Edler might be given a cookie, a glass of warm milk and a kiss goodnight for his troubles.

Instead, the Canucks defender was handed a suspension for his charge on Coyotes goalie Mike Smith that falls in line with what Andrew Shaw earned for his hit on Smith in last year’s playoffs…and one that’s two games more than Milan Lucic got for bowling over Ryan Miller in open ice earlier that season.

Crazy, ain’t it?

In his explanatory video, the DPS’ Rob Blake quoted NHL Rule 42: “A goalkeeper is not ‘fair game’ just because he is outside the goal crease area… However, incidental contact, at the discretion of the Referee, will be permitted when the goalkeeper is in the act of playing the puck outside his goal crease provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact.”

“While we agree that Alex Edler has no malicious intent on this play,” Blake added, “we believe he does not make any effort to minimize or avoid contact.”

Fair enough. Edler didn’t even think about avoiding contact, so he’s dead to rights there. I’d argue he made contact with Smith’s chest, rather than his head as Blake also mentions, but I’m not even sure that matters here. Smith wasn’t able to return to action and he’s dealing with what the team called whiplash, so factor the injury along with the charge and Edler was destined for civvies.

The decision tastes sour after the Nash pardon, but on its own merits it seems like a reasonable result. And since looking for a precedent in previous decisions has become a fool’s errand, that’s probably the best we can hope for.

UPDATE: A league executive phoned (way too early) this morning to say that the Lucic/Miller incident sparked a renewed commitment from the league to protect goaltenders and so it wasn’t an ideal point of comparison to the Edler hit. That’s a fair point, so it was worth including here. It doesn’t, however, alter the overarching context that the DPS’ reactions to the Nash/Edler incidents reinforces the existing perception that DPS lacks coherent standards.

By Allan Muir

Joffrey Lupul has played brilliantly in his first two games back with the Maple Leafs since missing most of the season with a broken arm.

We’ll have to wait a while to see if that hot streak continues into game three.

Lupul was handed a two-game suspension today by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety for a wildly blatant head shot on Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman in last night’s 4-2 Toronto win.

“As the video shows, after Hedman passes the puck, Lupul approaches from the side and recklessly targets Hedman’s head by elevating and making it the principal point of contact,” Rob Blake said in the DPS’ explanatory video.

By “elevating,” Blake means Lupul left the ice prior to making contact, which he pretty much had to do to avoid slamming into the 6-foot-6 Hedman’s elbow. But once a player “leaves his feet,” he’s asking for trouble from DPS.

Fortunately, Hedman wasn’t hurt on the play and that, combined with Lupul’s absence from the league’s Big Book O’ Mug Shots, added up to the two-gamer and the forfeiture of more than $45,000 in salary.

Was it a fair call? As the season goes on, it’s getting tougher and tougher to compare one suspension to another, but taken on it’s own merits, this one passes the smell test.

By Allan Muir

Corey Perry just earned the season’s first “message” suspension.

The Anaheim winger learned he’ll sit out four games and forfeit more than $115,000 in salary for his late hit on Minnesota’s Jason Zucker last night.

Brendan Shanahan conducted the hearing by phone, but it was Rob Blake, his Department of Player Safety cohort, who checked off all the obvious points in the video explanation: it was a late hit; Perry “recklessly made significant contact to the head of a player ineligible to be hit,” he had time to avoid or minimize it; Zucker was injured on the play; Perry had previously been suspended.

But the most interesting part of Blake’s presentation was this line: “In spite of the fact that all players need to be aware of their surroundings, it is perfectly reasonable that Zucker should no longer expect to be hit this long after possession.”

The whole “blame the victim” thing has long been a part of hockey culture. Honestly, I’m as guilty of it as anybody, because I was always taught that a player has a responsibility to keep his head up and stay alert, especially just after making a pass or taking a shot. If you’re dumb enough to stop to admire it, you’ll get what you deserve.

When I caught the replay, that was my initial reaction. If Zucker doesn’t take such a long look at his pass, he would have seen Perry in time and dodged the brunt of the hit.

But that’s wrong-headed thinking because all it does is validate opportunistic predation. Once a player has given up possession, he should have a reasonable expectation that he won’t be destroyed by a late hit.

I guarantee there will be plenty of disagreement with that since it essentially takes the onus off the victim to protect himself. But this doesn’t mean that players can’t finish their checks. It sets a standard that should eliminate the long runs like the one Perry made.

There should be punishment and prevention elements to any supplemental discipline decision. Shanny made an example out of a superstar-caliber player. Odds are the message won’t be overlooked.

Brandon Prust’s suspension for elbowing Anton Volchenkov’s head in Game 3 removes some physicality from the Rangers’ lineup as they try to take command of the series. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

It’s Game 4 in Newark tonight and a big one. A Rangers win over the Devils would give them a 3-1 lead in the series and a chance to close it out at home in Game 5. New Jersey, which always won the big games it had to against the Panthers and Flyers earlier this spring, looks to even the series at 2-2 and make it a minimum six-game affair. And to add some fuel to this combustible rivalry, the physical nature of the series has heated up and the coaches are getting into it.

Read More…

All hail the Kings: Jeff Carter (77), Drew Doughty (8), Mike Richards (10), Rob Scuderi (7), Dustin Penner and company are winning with confidence and uncommon authority. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

It’s still a good month before the captain of an NHL team hoists the Stanley Cup over his head and a lot can happen between now and then. But on the basis of the first three games in the Conference Championship round, there is no more impressive team at this moment than the Los Angeles Kings.

Read More…

Though Dainius Zubrus of the Devils ultimately wasn’t injured, the headshot he received from Claude Giroux (not pictured) was egregious enough to merit a disciplinary hearing. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

Will the NHL show courage and suspend Claude Giroux for Game 5 of the Flyers’ series against the Devils? A disciplinary hearing took place on Monday morning and Giroux certainly deserves a ban for targeting the head of the Devils’ Dainius Zubrus late in the second period of Sunday’s Game 4, which New Jersey won, 4-2, to push Philadelphia to the brink of elimination. But to remove Philly’s best player from the lineup in a potential elimination game would be a bold a move for Brendan Shanahan and the league’s Department of Player Safety. It would, however, show that they’ve learned from an earlier mistake.

UPDATED: The NHL has suspended Giroux for one game. Here is the league’s statement and Shanahan’s video explanation.

Read More…