Keith Gets 5 Games

[flopfish]

flopfish:

You are dead wrong on the suspension part. When you suspend them, it's without pay. That hits them in the pocketbook, the not playing part, hurts their team as a result of the players action.

Are you going to start then implementing fines in the ballpark of 100K, 200K and up, yet leave the player on the ice?

You have said suspensions are not the way to do things, yet you did not elaborate what would take their place.

What do you do once the foul has been committed?

You didn't read my post right. A lot of these suspensions and concussions are from hits that are on the player is also responsible for not protecting themselves. Suspending people for head contact will ruin the game. No one will want to hit anymore. A lot of these are avoidable by the players being hit too. The NHL is in a state where it's hard to slow a player down without taking a penalty, causing the collisions to get more violent. A lot of players skate withe their head down with the puck now, something that happened less pre lockout. Also, with all of the penalties in place, most players feel more protected from these hits and don't protect themselves. Also, I said keep suspensions in there for obvious cheap shots, but don't go handing them out for accidental head contact. The offensive player needs to take some responsiblity for a lot of these. There's a reason why I love watching WHL hockey because players get hit and protect themselves from hits, skate with their head up and expect to get hit. There also needs to be stricter criteria for suspensions on blatant hits to the head. Let's be serious, when guys are making 4+ million per year, a 5 game suspension without pay ain't much, especially when they have 10+ year careers. Give out stiffer penalties to the players for players who committ cheap shots, but don't punish accidental ones and get players to protect themselves too

[centrehice]

You didn't read my post right. A lot of these suspensions and concussions are from hits that are on the player is also responsible for not protecting themselves. Suspending people for head contact will ruin the game. No one will want to hit anymore. A lot of these are avoidable by the players being hit too. The NHL is in a state where it's hard to slow a player down without taking a penalty, causing the collisions to get more violent. A lot of players skate withe their head down with the puck now, something that happened less pre lockout. Also, with all of the penalties in place, most players feel more protected from these hits and don't protect themselves. Also, I said keep suspensions in there for obvious cheap shots, but don't go handing them out for accidental head contact. The offensive player needs to take some responsiblity for a lot of these. There's a reason why I love watching WHL hockey because players get hit and protect themselves from hits, skate with their head up and expect to get hit. There also needs to be stricter criteria for suspensions on blatant hits to the head. Let's be serious, when guys are making 4+ million per year, a 5 game suspension without pay ain't much, especially when they have 10+ year careers. Give out stiffer penalties to the players for players who committ cheap shots, but don't punish accidental ones and get players to protect themselves too

What?

I played contact hockey for over 20 years, I've never hit anybody in the head in my life. I also played in one of the toughest leagues in Canada, the Highway Hockey League in Saskatchewan. It was called the "No Teeth" League in the 70's and early 80's.

Everyone fought, some high-sticked, but nobody laid ELBOWS into heads like today. Elbow Pads were not pieces of armor, they did the basics, they protected your elbows from the ice and the boards as that is what elbow pads are designed for, and not to be used as weapons.

You want to do something grassroots, take the face shields off the kids, and they will learn some respect. Get a few teeth knocked out at age 10, you won't be so keen to throw an elbow as an adult.


Suspending players for hits to the head will ruin the game? You've lost your mind.

[Wickabee]

Suspending players for hits to the head will ruin the game? You've lost your mind.

I disagree with a lot of Hice's post, but this is bang on. If taking headshots out of the game will ruin it. it's not much of a game to begin with, is it?

[notoriousrob101]

Should give stiffer penalties on head shots and take out the hard plastic from the elbow pads. 10 games instead of the 5. Problem solved. Mod please close thread :p

[Wickabee]

That's only half of it. The on-ice refs need to start actually doing their job. If they had called the Sedin hit a penalty (I don't think it warranted a misconduct, but definitely a minor) it probably could have avoided a lot of this. If Keith had received the 5+game he SHOULD have, none of the crap afterwards (Burrows) would have happened. NHL referees are about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. They are FAR more inconsistent than Shanahan could ever think of being.