The rise of the Philadelphia Flyers in the standings this year seems to have one weird, unintended site effect….suspensions…four of them already. So once is an accident…twice is a trend…what in the wide wide world of sports does fourth mean? I really can’t remember a team having four of its players suspended in separate incidents this early in the season. It isn’t even Decemeber yet! So here is the list err rap sheet as a few have called it.
- Steve Downie 20 games for his hit on Dean McAmmond (Sep 25th)
- Jesse Boulerice 25 games for stick check on face of Ryan Kesler (Mid October)
- Randy Jones 2 games for hit on Patrice Bergeron (Oct 27th)
- Scotty Hartnell 2 games for hit on Andrew Alberts (Nov 25th)
So who’s next? That seems like an indictment on the Flyers rather than an actual statement. I would be inclined to agree with the readers on that. However, with the league’s current rules…they are unintentionally fostering this level of violence and the dangerous hits that come with it. I love physical hockey….hell I crave it. Columnists, bloggers, and fans have gone over time and time again ways to curb it. Yet the NHL in their infinite wisdom doesn’t want to look at some basic things that could help. It is what it is.
Now would the NHL see a decrease in this if they dropped the instigator? Yes they would…but that would mean more fighting and accountability. The latter part would be ignored by the NHL. Funny thing is the pugilistic art is trending upward albeit slightly. Until this year that is….depending on what projects out. When all else fails…always rely on the good folks at hockeyfights.com for the number crunching…they do an excellent job on the art of fighting in hockey. All the numbers are trending upward…even the preseason ones where there are traditionally more fights anyway. There are projected to be around 650 fights by the end of this year….quite a ways up from the 497 and 466 the previous two seasons. Another relatively big number…games that there are multiple fights has shot up from 87 last year…projected to be 145 this year. That is quite an increase.
The sport is getting faster and faster. With more speed, there are more violent collisions. With more violent collisions there are more fights. As much as the NHL tries to curb fighting, it will never truly outlaw it but yet it won’t let the players police themselves. The increasing reliance on officials and heads of officiating has caused a problem bigger than anyone imagined. Four incidents from one team in two months can’t be ignored. How big of a deal is it really?
Time to go to the videotape for that one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA1LYxneRpE&rel=1
Colin Campbell definitely has contradicted himself….Ohlund got more games (4) and what he did was bad but got less than what it would have in early October. Campbell tried sending a statement with the early suspensions but these lighter ones have sent an even bigger one….a bad one at that. Most of us were expecting Hartnell to get at least 5-7 games (somewhere in that range) and were more shocked at how fast the decision was handed down more than anything else. I mean Denny’s doesn’t even serve food that fast. That is scary! So if the Flyers want to play physical hockey….it is fine by me. The rest of the teams may want to get the point and play just as physical. Good, clean physical hockey is the way to answer it and some old fashioned brawls don’t hurt either.
These aren’t the Broad Street Bullies….people need to let that time go. It is a different time…an even more physical time. Maybe fighting fire with fire is the real answer here. If not, then who knows. That is what the fourth incident means to me….GET THE MESSAGE….GET PHYSICAL!
