Appealing For Fairness

With NHL suspensions being handed out like Hallowe'en candy so far this fall (nine to date) by new hanging judge Brendan Shanahan, there is one question few are asking.

Why don't more players appeal? Or is there even a way for them to appeal?

The NHL Players Association is certainly asking the same question, arguing somebody who gets a $50 traffic ticket has more rights to try and fight it than an NHL player who loses hundreds of thousands of dollars through suspension.

Well, there is a way for NHL players to appeal. Sort of. If, say, James Wisniewski wanted to question the eight-game suspension and loss of more than $536,000 in salary for elbowing Cal Clutterbuck in the head, he could go to the one layer of NHL judicial appeal.

Gary Bettman.

Now, one might wonder how the people who give the suspensions - NHL operations, with input from others, including Bettman - end up essentially being the same people who would review the suspensions. Just guessing, but they'd probably, upon review, think they did a pretty bang-up job the first time.

Fair? Don't think so. But this is the way its always been, which is why NHLers don't appeal. What would be the point? You really think Bettman would look at the decision of Shanahan - his prize appointee - and correct it?

This, of course, is a CBA issue, and one that is receiving intense internal discussion around the NHLPA offices. New union boss Donald Fehr, of course, comes from baseball, where there is an appeal process, albeit one that has become a bit silly; the league suspends a player, and the suspension is always reduced on appeal. But it's a process at least.

Like Colin Campbell before him, Shanahan - currently surrounded by all kinds of media cheerleaders - will soon find this to be an impossible job because its impossible to be consistent. So Brad Boyes gets two pre-season games for a nasty head shot on Joe Colborne, but Clarke MacArthur just one pre-season and two regular season games for a less vicious head hit on Justin Abdelkader? Was one act really decidedly more nasty than the other? 

MacArthur took his protest too far. Hitting isn't going to be taken out of the game, and he probably deserved at least a penalty for the hit. But if you were him, you might want to draw the comparison between his hit and the Boyes hit and demand some quite of quasi-judicial satisfaction on appeal.

It's easy to say boo-hoo and these are rich hockey players who need to learn how to mind their manners, etc. But while everyone is trumpeting the new transparency - where was the explanation as to why Eric Nystrom wasn't suspended, by the way? - it must be accompanied by fairness, and part of fairness is the right to appeal to an independent body or individual. 

In this case, that can't be Bettman. The PA will push for an independent arbitration process in the next round of CBA talks, but it's believed the NHL has absolutely no interest in altering the current system.

So the boys will have something else to fight about.

 

 

Comments

[Arthur Bailey]

They should create a panel to review appeals. It should be made up of concussion specialists, Don Sanderson's mother and Steve Moore. No, it would not be an impartial panel, but rather people who have experienced, or see first hand, the dangers of reckless acts in Hockey.

I am sure this panel would add games to any suspension brought forward to them for review by any player dumb enough to whine about his "bad luck"

[John "Buck" Anger]

Well Shanny the guy that is going to make the game perfect has already floundered with his philosphy I must be right cause I said so.

[Barry Wootton]

Could the wearing of light coloured helmets with dark coloured sweaters and dark coloured helmets with light coloured sweater help in the elimination of checks causing head injuries

[Jonathan Parker]

Let the players decide the length of suspension: it is their noggins.
Let the players decide the standards regarding elbow/shoulder pads and facial protection.
All the league/managers really care about is selling tickets and protecting the star players. All coaches are there to win with whatever tools they are given and to maintain the status quo: play hard or go home.

[Coz]

I don't there is a problem with the process...yes if i get a traffic ticket i can oppose it...but it's the same legal system...i'm not going to the states or russia to appeal it. Let's remember what's at stake here...players safety...why don't players just listening i'm tired of hearing..."well if i don't finish that hit, then i won't get to play" that's bogus...i'm all for fighting and hitting in hockey...heck i'm canadian it's just the way the game should be played, but these hits are getting a little crazy, and the only to stop it, it's to hit "them" where it hurts, their pocket book, and if they lose a job, because that's all their good at, then suck it up and get a 9 to 5 job like the rest of us

[MZ]

"It's easy to say boo-hoo and these are rich hockey players who need to learn how to mind their manners, etc."
Easy, indeed - and no one has said this louder or longer than one D. Cox.

[Geoff Read]

The weirdest non-suspension so far has to be Ryan Malone on Chris Campoli. It just didn't make any sense to me and served, once again, to muddy the waters where clarity is needed.

[80s Leafs]

I'm curious to hear Barry Wootton expand a bit on his theory on the dark helmet-light jersey, and vice-versa, combos. What is the reasoning?

[Verge]

Some of these players apparently find it impossible to put themselves in someone else's shoes. If MacArthur had been the one who was hit in the head, he would feel differently.

As far as I'm concerned, he's a bit of a crybaby. The idea that hitting will be removed from the game if head shots are removed is ludicrous. He obviously thinks that NHL players are too stupid to understand how to hit someone without nailing them in the head.

We're talking about the possibility of permanent brain damage from these head shots. Cry me a river, MacArthur, over your piddly suspension. Take it like a grown-up.