The Wild West

The NHL lets head shots go unpenalized all the time.

As proven with Daniel Alfredsson's hit on Buffalo's Henrik Tallinder in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final, the league also routinely condones punishing hits from behind.

So to think Gary Bettman's administration will suddenly get the urge to do the right thing and suspend Anaheim's Chris Pronger for his cheapshot on Tomas Holmstrom of the Detroit Red Wings in Game 3 of the Western Conference final last night would be expecting Bettman's league to suddenly come to its senses.

Pronger's hit was to the head, it was from behind, it drew blood and it had fans in Anaheim baying for more blood given that the Ducks had got Holmstrom, probably the most troublesome Detroit player in the series so far.

(Ed note: The NHL will hold a hearing on the incident late Tuesday.)

Understand this. The NHL adores mayhem. It likes blood. It wants to see players like Holmstrom have their heads split open and bleeding, and to have those "highlights" shown on television throughout Canada and the U.S. It wants hockey to be seen as a sport in which Wes Craven would feel welcome. Bettman believes gore sells, and thus the NHL had to be thrilled when those who stayed to the very end of last night's blowout were "rewarded" when Ryan Getzlaf ended up skating around with blood all over his face courtesy of a high-stick from Kirk Maltby..

That is the image the NHL has proven over and over it not only embraces, but believes must be part of its product.

It wants to be seen as an outlaw league. And so it is.

The league that said Chris Neil's headhunting play on Chris Drury was good hockey and shrugged at Alfredsson's blatantly illegal and unpenalized hit on Saturday will thus likely shrug again when it comes to Pronger.

After all, Holmstrom deserved it, right? He'd played well, scored a goal and helped the Wings jump ahead 4-0.

In the philosophy espoused widely in the NHL and preached every Saturday night on Hockey Night in Canada, a vicious, cowardly hit from behind was the correct response from Pronger and the Ducks.

Can't let those Wings get away with playing better hockey, after all. Unfortunately, the league's officials also got the call wrong on the spot, penalizing Rob Niedermayer instead of Pronger. Niedermayer arrived at the same time, but Pronger did the damage.

So nothing is the expected response from the NHL today. If they puff out their chests and get all morally correct, Pronger might, just maybe, get a game.

And then Brian Burke will go utterly ballistic, if he hasn't already. The defence will be that this is a "man's game," that Pronger can't be held responsible because he's 6-foot-6 playing against shorter men and that Holmstrom is to blame for having his helmet done up ineffectively. Moreover, he returned to the game in the third period, and in the NHL, quick recovery is always held against a player.

There's an echo here, of course, from Burke's days running the Vancouver Canucks when that team repeatedly shot itself in the foot in the post-season largely because of a lack of discipline and focus. There's no question Burke has built a strong, skilled and very tough team in Anaheim, but his challenge, and that of his coach Randy Carlyle, is to make sure these Ducks don't Canuck themselves.

The culmination of that Vancouver craziness was, of course, Todd Bertuzzi's unforgettable attack on Steve Moore, although that wasn't in a playoff game. It was somewhat ironic, then, to see a very different Bertuzzi playing for the calm, composed Red Wings last night against Burke's Ducks.

Back to the hit. Sure, the stakes are high, and Pronger would be a big loss. But the stakes were also high for Holmstrom last night, and he deserves the protection of the NHL.

He deserves better than that which Steve Nash got from the NBA, that's for sure. Robert Horry will undoubtedly be getting congratulations all around in the San Antonio locker room for not only laying out Nash with a cheap shot, but then enticing two Phoenix players - Amare Stoudamire and Boris Diaw - to leave the bench by a matter of feet.

So Horry, a support player, gets two games while Stoudamire and Diaw, both key Suns, get one each. Advantage Spurs.

Could David Stern have blown this one worse?

Then again, lets hold any condemnation of Stern until we see what Bettman's league has to say today.

Comments

[Peter Haywood]

Is the NHL going to wait unitl someone breaks their neck, or worse, before they start doing something about the hitting from behind?

[bill]

I have played hockey & followed it closely from the early 1960's--the jury is still out on the New NHL, but this crazy stuff has to stop. Ex-players on TV & the media all brag about how hockey is a sport of intimidation. All sports have that to some degree, but they must protect the players. Do we have to wait till you see maybe, Sidney Crosy laying face down on the ice from another head shot? Then will Bettman & Campbell say; "Gee, that doesn't look good, does it?" If you want blood & extreme violence, watch WWF, kickboxing & all that other crap they promote on Versus. It is sad to see hockey end up like this.

[Julian]

All good points but it's a little disingenuous to suggest that HNiC advocates hitting from behind. Cherry frequently shows clips of hits from behind and espouses the need to toughen penalties for those kinds of hits.

[Bob]

I couldn't agree more.

The acts in this year's playoffs are almost sickening to watch.
You hook a players glove and you go the box for 2 minutes. You ram a guy from behind into the boards like the Alfredson hit on Saturday and nothing gets called and again a simialr incident last night.

To me as an adult, I look at the offences and for the life of me cannot decipher which is worse, the hook that gets penalized or the supposedly legal hit from behind?

[Jeff]

Considering Chris Simon got a handful more games for nearly killing somebody than somebody using a 'banned substance', it's obvious to everybody the league needs to change.

Except the idiots running it.

[Braden]

I would say that 80% of the hits in the NHL that are considered "head shots" are good, clean hits. Players in the "New NHL" are being babied and as a result, are skating with their heads down. To say that the ones getting hit are completely absolved of any responsibility is ludacris.
That being said, Pronger's hit was dirty, it was from behind, and he used his hands/elbow to shove Holmstrom into the glass. However, the leagues really need to get away from the mitigating circumstances when looking at punishment. A dirty hit is dirty regardless if it knocks a player out for two minutes or two months, no?

[Phil]

You are absolutely my favorite hockey writer. Keep up the great work!!

[Stephen]

HNIC preaches checking from behind every single Saturday night? We know you don't like them Damien, but c'mon...

[Nate Wind]

Hi Damien,

I applaud your sisyphean battle against violence in sports. Perhaps you could decidate some column space in the future to discussing professional boxing and/or the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Regards,
Nathanial

[Chris]

While I definitely agree with the distaste for cheapshots--which Pronger's hit most certainly was, I find the current NHL game to be a pretty (dare I say 'over') sanitized version of hockey. Most of the penalties called in the NHL wouldn't be called at the Major Atom level. If the NHL wanted a goon league, they have more than enough guys in the minors and LNAH to fill those rolls. Let's not forget that the Wings only had 10 fighting majors all season.

[Steve Barnett]

C,mon Damian, they may of got the wrong guy on the penalty but he got 5 and a game. Plus tell
Holstrom to do his strap on his helmet up because that's where he got the cut from. There is such a glut of apparent hits from behind because all these gutless players are "turning thier numbers" at the last minute to make it appear to be from behind.
Plus your constant whining about the violence in hockey is becoming stale. Maybe jump across the hall and do movie reviews or how about "Damian Cox lifestyle editor, this weeks article, violence in bingo halls goes unchecked"

[Alex]

"In the philosophy espoused widely in the NHL and preached every Saturday night on Hockey Night in Canada, a vicious, cowardly hit from behind was the correct response from Pronger and the Ducks."

This statement, as it pertains to HNiC (and specifically Don Cherry), is libellous Damien.

While you may have a problem with Don Cherry advocating fighting in hockey, he has also consistently argued against hitting from behind and similar dangerous infractions. How many times for instance, has Cherry held up a minor hockey jersey with the “STOP” patch on the back?

This blog post is a very good example of the problem a lot of people have with your writing, whether they agree with you or not. A sentence like the above quote is a serious charge (especially for a public broadcaster); it is not a throwaway line. Your columns and blogs are always peppered with these seemingly disingenuous statements, and since they are often repeated in the same tone when you are on a talking head television segment, they lead a person to believe that Damien Cox is somewhat of a fictional character like a Stephen Colbert.

While there may be money to be made playing a perpetual Devil’s Advocate and writing over-the-top columns and blog posts, being the Ann Coulter of sports journalism (lame attempts at humour included) isn’t anything to be congratulated for.

A reporter writing about sports should be held to the same standard as someone writing about hard news. Please retract your unfair and misleading assertion.

[rico smith]

Gee what a surprise Damien Cox writes a column and mentions Bertuzzi, I,m shocked... Pronger got suspended the hit was blatant yada yada yada but to throw the Vancouver Canucks under the bus & say their playoff woes were because they had no discipline is a joke... The Canucks lost playoff series cause their goalie couldn't stop a beach ball see Dan Cloutier & his career playoff stats 3.31 gaa and a stellar save % of 872... I know we have one round of playoffs to follow and if the Wings make the final I'm sure you will mention Bertuzzi atleast in 5 more columns....

[chris]

One of these days (God forbid) someone is going to get killed on the ice as a result of receiving a cheap shot. And the fallout of that will be... absolutly bloody nothing.

The idiots who rule over this sport have decreed that mindless, wanton violence is just peachy keen with them, and anyone who disagrees with them is a little cupcake who should go watch the ballet or, worse, basketball.

It's their sport, it's their rules. If they don't care what they're doing to it, why should we? Let them continue with their inbred ways.

[Zac Kurylyk]

Damien,
I've been laughing myself over the past few weeks as Leafs fans (such as myself) and Sens fans both bash you. I think you manage to properly nail down both teams' faults.
In regards to your comment about the Leafs' lack of a superstar since Frank Mahovlich, what about Doug Gilmour in his prime, and perhaps even Felix Potvin at his best (short as those periods were for the Leafs).