Throat-slash gestures are taken very seriously by the NHL, which last month levied maximum fines against Toronto’s Nazem Kadri and Anaheim’s Josh Manson for their unsavory pantomimes that inflicted no damage on anyone.
But actual throat slashes with a hockey stick that injure an opponent? Well, that’s a horse of a different color?
Or should we say, Penguin?
For when the ironically named Department of Player Safety took up Kris Letang’s chop across Viktor Stalberg’s throat/jaw that knocked out three of the Ranger winger’s teeth at 7:12 of the third period in Pittsburgh’s 3-1 Game 3 victory at the Garden on Tuesday, league executives went into contortions to find the way not to suspend (or discipline in any manner) one of the Penguins’ most important players.
Play on!
If it wasn’t quite the victim-blaming mode the league so often adopts when rationalizing reckless play and allowing perps to skate scot-free, it was close enough. For the Rangers were told Letang — whose slash went uncalled — would not be disciplined for his perfectly placed two-hander because he was supposedly off-balance after having been checked a moment earlier in the sequence by a forechecking Dominic Moore.
Balderdash.
First, that is not what happened. Letang was bounced off the rear glass by Moore, straightened, and, seeking the quickest exit route from traffic behind the goal line, weaponized his stick and delivered a quick strike against Stalberg that allowed No. 58 to achieve his objective.
Second, this cockamamie explanation is in direct contradiction to the NHL rule book. Perhaps Safety VP Stephane Quintal might want to skim through it. Because if he did, he would find this under Rule 60.1 for high-sticking: “Players must be in control and responsible for their stick.”
There is an exception noted, and, oddly, it does not cover an invaluable employee of Mario Lemieux facing a suspension in the playoffs. Instead, the exception allows “accidental contact” resulting from a normal windup or follow-through on a shot.
So where did the Letang exception originate?
And, more to the point, what is it about the NHL’s DNA that its disciplinary process is designed to keep punishments to a bare minimum? It is a system in which the alleged prosecutors — who are also judge and jury — are always on the lookout for technicalities to set defendants free.
You know, anyone who covers this sport could write about officiating and the league disciplinary system on an essentially daily basis. It is too easy a trap to fall into, especially during the playoffs. You write about officiating injustices and you’re immediately tabbed a homer carrying water for the team you cover. You avoid it when you can.
And so following Saturday’s Game 2 in which an off-balance and vulnerable Derek Stepan was shoved from behind into the boards by Ben Lovejoy, I did not write a word about the play that also was unpenalized and also escaped notice from the league. Did not write anything about the officials’ refusal to call Chris Kunitz’s vicious two-hand chop across the back of Marc Staal’s leg until they could call coincidental, offsetting penalties after Kevin Klein interceded on his teammate’s behalf.
Plus, there is this: Neither the officiating on the ice nor the acrobatics on Sixth Avenue is the root cause of the Rangers’ 2-1 deficit in the series. The Blueshirts have been outplayed in two of the three games; have been beaten by a pair of first-year playoff goaltenders in their postseason debuts; have not scored a 5-on-4 power-play goal in an aggregate 18:17; and say that their “will” was somehow lacking in both their Game 1 and Game 3 defeats.
If the Blueshirts are going to get through this series, probably a dozen of them have to elevate their respective games. And that goes for the coach, too, who might not want to have a player with one hand compromised playing the point on the second power-play unit, even if the individual in question is Ryan McDonagh.
Still, the officials either did not see, chose not to see, or chose to misinterpret three distinct dangerous and reckless plays perpetrated against the Rangers by the Penguins.
It is becoming as much of a pattern as the NHL’s leniency-based justice system that denies justice to victims and gives aid and comfort to the perps … and an advantage to their teams.