That a Matt Cooke blindside hit to the head is once again the major topic of conversation in the final month of the NHL season is evidence of just how little distance the league has traveled in just over one year, since the Penguins’ winger unconscionably delivered the blow that has compromised Marc Savard’s health while ruining his career.
That this serial headhunter will not be permitted on the ice for the final 10 games of the Penguins’ regular season and the first round of the playoffs, under the just decision handed down yesterday by NHL Executive VP Colin Campbell, is evidence of the distance traveled by the league since allowing the hit to the Boston center to go unpunished.
The verdict was swift and reflects well on Campbell, the league, and the entire, expansive infrastructure of the sport. This was an enlightened response to both the hockey crime and the perpetrator and it should serve as a statement that the league will no longer tolerate such headhunting tactics and/or recidivists.
The third item on commissioner Gary Bettman’s five-point plan to limit concussions is constructing a proposal to submit to the Board of Governors, in which teams and coaches would be held liable for their respective repeat offenders, though the significance of the commissioner’s progressive suggestion will only be reflected in its details.
If clubs are to be fined, they should be fined a significant amount for each one of their repeat offenders, beginning with the second offense/offender and thereafter mounting exponentially. If coaches are to be suspended, then sentences must be applied for each repeat offense/offender, with punishment increasing as with the fines.
Beyond that, Article 18.3 of the collective bargaining agreement should be amended beginning next season, redefining the repeat-offender statute. As it stands now, a player is considered a repeat offender if he is suspended under Supplementary Discipline more than once every 18 months. If a player keeps his nose clean for 18 months, his record is expunged.
The length of time should be two full calendar years, with each subsequent offense doubling the time period. In other words, a player who commits a hockey crime while on probation would immediately carry repeat offender status for four additional calendar years.
In addition, every supplementary discipline sentence to a repeat offender should force his team to dress one man shy of the maximum, the punishment increasing by one with each subsequent repeat offense/offender, with the roster never dropping below 15 players.
With self-interest ruling universally, adopting these steps would assuredly rid the league of repeat offenders, and be evidence of accelerated NHL enlightenment on the issue.
The only way, however, for the league to push this through is with support of teams, players and the NHLPA and executive director Donald Fehr alike.
Yesterday was a good day for the NHL and Campbell. Yesterday represented progress.