Keith Gets 5 Games

[30ranfordfan]

Couple of comments to make....

The suspension is exactly what I expected it to be, as Shanahan continues his typically light sentances. 5 games is nothing. It is very much within the "precident" of what he's set earlier in the year, but a joke. Suspensions like this will do nothing to curb this kind of behaviour. Suspend him 15 games and fine the team $500,000 and it would change quick. Call the NFL and ask how they would deal with comperable nonsense.

Having said that - I respectfully disagree with an early post's idea of deffering the suspension to the playoffs. It has to start immediatly. Letting him playout the season and then serve the suspension doesn't work.

As for the Intigator Rule - I'll agree & disagree. A large part of the notion around fighting is that it let's the players police themselves. The Intigator takes that away (to some degree). If I were in charge I'd remove the penalty, but give 5 + the match for fighting.... but the reason for the fight would have no bearing.

If the rules were returned to the pre-Insigator way of doing things, I do not believe that it would do anything to curb dirty play. It's simple. Keith (along with 98% of the rest of the league) will simply back away and not fight if he doesn't feel like it. Fighting in the game does not force a player to engage in a fight he doesn't want to be part of.

[egghead529]

So I have to make the Blackhawks comment here. Keith's hit was absolutely wrong, but he deserves his 5 games, no more, no less. Shane Doan got a 3 game suspension for a blatant elbow to the head and he is a repeat offender. Keith has been fined once in his 7 year NHL career and that's it.

Also, what about Sedin and Alex Burrows in this situation. If the league is trying to eliminate blatant head shots, why is Sedin not at least being looked at. He threw a shoulder to Keith's jaw. Keith had gotten rid of the puck more than a coulple seconds prior and wasn't even looking in Sedin's direction. IMO, he deserves a game or at the very least a fine. Alex Burrows (with Cooke cleaning himself up a bit) is the dirtiest player I have seen in the NHL. Take a look at video of the last 2 years and you can see him biting players, pulling players' hair, and kneeing Keith in the groin while he is on the ground. These actions aren't worthy of a suspension either??

Just needed some Blackhawk opinion in this thread, and this is not a homer opinion here, it's the facts

[centrehice]

C'mon Man !!

[Mike1433]

I'm A hawks fan, and I personally like Duncan Keith as A player. I thought his hit on Daniel Sedin was a dirty elbow, and I think he deserves every one of those 5 games, if not the 7 they considered. Bench him till the playoff starts even though it's his first time. But at the same time, why wasn't Daniel Sedin even looked at for his earlier hit on Duncan Keith? He hit him from the blind side, after Keith got rid of the puck, and he raised his shoulder up to make contact with Keith's head...

[Nucks4cup]

You know why sedins hit isnt being looked at. Its because he is hurt and wont play the rest of the regular season. therefor anything the league would have handed down would have been served while injured. If Daniel would have played the rest of the game and had a clean bill of health he would have gotten a suspension. As far as burrows goes... he got lucky. I really wish he would have received a suspension and clean his act up.

The best way to eliminate head shots in my mind would to issue a 15 game minimum ban for ANY head contact. Then to not allow the team with a player suspended to call up a player to fill that spot. you have a D man go down with a suspension, you play with 5 D men. lose a forward, your down to 11. This will make teams/players think twice about goonery. Also they need some serious equipment over hauls. These elbow and shoulder pads are enabling players to run around wreckless. Heres how i see it, a shoulder separation is easier to recover from then a concussion. The league started to make things better after Crosby was hurt, It's time this offseason they finish the job before the league losses any more star players to concussions

[flopfish]

I'm A hawks fan, and I personally like Duncan Keith as A player. I thought his hit on Daniel Sedin was a dirty elbow, and I think he deserves every one of those 5 games, if not the 7 they considered. Bench him till the playoff starts even though it's his first time. But at the same time, why wasn't Daniel Sedin even looked at for his earlier hit on Duncan Keith? He hit him from the blind side, after Keith got rid of the puck, and he raised his shoulder up to make contact with Keith's head...

That hit should have been a max fine, as the rest have this year. I was shocked they didn't look at it either, coming from a die-hard Canucks fan. I like Keith as a player too. Very underrated defence men IMO.

Also to the comment about Burrows: A) Bergeron pretty much shoved his finger in Burrows' mouth when he bit it. If someone shoves their sweaty glove in you. B) The knee, albeit dirty, happens everywhere in hockey where players are getting up and pushing the other player down. Nothing has ever been done about it. C) Every single team has players like this who do stuff after the whistle. Take Dustin Byfuglien back when he was a Blackhawk and all the cheap shots he made. There will always be these types of players in hockey. There are in any sport. As much as you hate Burrows, your team has had players that have been worse to other fans and it got you a Stanley Cup.

[flopfish]

You know why sedins hit isnt being looked at. Its because he is hurt and wont play the rest of the regular season. therefor anything the league would have handed down would have been served while injured. If Daniel would have played the rest of the game and had a clean bill of health he would have gotten a suspension. As far as burrows goes... he got lucky. I really wish he would have received a suspension and clean his act up.

The best way to eliminate head shots in my mind would to issue a 15 game minimum ban for ANY head contact. Then to not allow the team with a player suspended to call up a player to fill that spot. you have a D man go down with a suspension, you play with 5 D men. lose a forward, your down to 11. This will make teams/players think twice about goonery. Also they need some serious equipment over hauls. These elbow and shoulder pads are enabling players to run around wreckless. Heres how i see it, a shoulder separation is easier to recover from then a concussion. The league started to make things better after Crosby was hurt, It's time this offseason they finish the job before the league losses any more star players to concussions

Sedin still could have gotten suspended, and he would have to serve when he got back. Also, if you suspend Burrows for that then you are handing out suspensions to a ton of players every game for after the whistle scrums.

Also, on your second paragraph, you'd see NO hitting, teams that won't have enough players to play and really frustrated fans and players; things you need to keep the game running. Daniel's hit a 15 game suspension? Goodbye to the NHL.

THERE ARE ONLY 3 WAYS TO EFFECTIVELY REDUCE THE SEVERITY OF INJURIES TO PLAYERS AND HEADSHOTS. SUSPENSIONS WILL ONLY RUIN HOCKEY AS WE KNOW IT

Sorry, had to make my point there loud and clear for everyone to read it.

Here's how:
1) Teach players how to protect themselves from being hit. This starts from the minors down to when players first start playing. Players turn their back to protect themselves from a hit and pay the price. You see it all the time in Juniors, and a guy who is 5'9" at best, Brendan Gallagher, protects himself properly from high hits, even though he is elbow height of most of the defenders.
- a lot of times players skate with the puck and have their head down, and put themselves into vulnerable positions at the last second after the player is committed to the hit. Players fail to keep their heads up after they just passed the puck, they turn to the boards at the last second when they know someone is going to hit them, and there are many other situations players put themselves in.
- granted that players should be suspended in certain situations for cheap hits. Sedin's should be suspendible, IMO a 1 gamer or a larger fine that today's NHL (Current NHL: 2,500 max.) He came from Keith's back, and it was late (Later than Aaron Rome's hit that got him 5 games in the playoffs last year coincidentally.) On the hit, Daniel brought his shoulder up, at a constant speed and angle. He didn't intentionally target the head, but made contact with it. It was more of an accidental hit to the head than the head being targeted. It happens, but he shouldn't have been suspended for the head part of the hit, rather the lateness and the blindside part. Keith's hit, a blatant elbow out of retaliation, should yield a 7 game suspension IMO, but under the current NHL a 5 game, so they got it right. That being said... on to point two.

2) Have criteria for a suspension REGARDLESS of an injury or not.
- Let's say Keith was down on the ice and left the game with a concussion, Daniel would have gotten a 3 game suspension at least. However, it should not be this way. If the INTENT for a deliberate shot to the head or spear, drop suspensions on them, even if they don't make contact or barely make contact
- Everyone should be treated equally. If Crosby elbows some 4th line scrub to the head, he should get the same suspension that the 4th line scrub would get for elbowing him
- Have larger fines. No brainer here, if a player losses a chunk of their salary, they won't do cheap hits.
- Have a basic criteria set up, and then if the player hits with a more severe speed or force. (i.e. Spears a player harder, elbows harder etc.)

3) Relax hooking and holding penalties a bit. How often did players get hit in the head hard and viciously back then? The speed of the game was slower, and led to weaker hits because you didn't have to hit to stop a player.

Tbh, shocked this isn't brought up more.

[Wickabee]

The Sedin hit went completely unnoticed until awhile after the Keith hit. I fully agree it should have been called a penalty. I could maybe see a fine, but I don't think suspension for that one. Sedin was finishing his check while Keith was watching the play but it was way late and hit the head. The refs screwed up.

When Keith hit Sedin, it was blatant. The puck pops in the air, but Keith's eyes never leave Sedin for a second. He sees Sedin with his back to him and moves in, when Sedin turns around, he raises his elbow and jumps. He says he was closing the gap? Where does "smash your opponent in the face with your elbow" fit into closing the gap? I cannot believe the refs called a minor. That was complete BS and I think those officials should be fined for gross incompetence. They really blew that one.

Burrows does need to be sat down and if I was Vigneault, I would consider doing it. I think that's one that the cameras caught but the refs didn't (same with Sedin's hit on Keith, really). There's way too much of that. If Sedin had been called in the first place the rest wouldn't have happened. I put as much blame for this situation on the refs as I do on Keith. I'd say they lost control but really, they never had it.

[Estovia]

You argue that Sedin getting 15g for that headshot on Keith would be the end of the NHL.
I argue that if Sedin KNOWS he's going to get 15g for doing it, he (1)doesn't raise his arm and shoulder into that hit, and (2) probably never makes that hit that was not going to accomplish anything anyway.

There are too many of these hits over the years that GMs have defended as players "finishing their checks." Finishing your check is a cop out, and is almost uniformly used as a polite way of saying "late hit." When the player is clearly removed from the play (as Keith was) there is NO reason for Sedin to even make contact there. Hell there was another Canuck on the play who was in a better position to "finish his check" but he pulled up to turn to where the puck was going!

That's why Sedin needs to be given a hearing and suspension for this, regardless of how many game he'll miss due to injury. Keith's was flagrant and retaliatory, but Sedin's was no more "necessary" or "accidental" than Keith's.

[Craig2]

The Sedin hit went completely unnoticed until awhile after the Keith hit. I fully agree it should have been called a penalty. I could maybe see a fine, but I don't think suspension for that one. Sedin was finishing his check while Keith was watching the play but it was way late and hit the head. The refs screwed up.

I like the 'Hawks, but I agree that Sedin's hit was much more defensible than what Keith did. I don't know what happened to Keith, but his play is barely a shadow of what he was just a couple of years ago. Both he and Seabrook seem to have regressed since about the time of their Olympic run.