Penguins Playoff Update: NHL Justice a Mockery

What do Penguins Tom Kuhnhackl, Chad Ruhwedel and Scott Wilson have in common?

If you answered each has been a victim of an on-ice assault during the postseason, you’d be correct.

In Kuhnhackl’s case, Blue Jackets forward Matt Calvert cross-checked the Pens’ winger with enough force to snap the shaft of his stick in half. Unsated by his initial act of violence, Calvert circled like a predator stalking its prey and flattened poor Tom for good measure.

The NHL’s disciplinary arm, the Department of Player Safety, reviewed the offense and issued a statement.

“This is not a hockey play in a sense (that) it has nothing to do with the pursuit of the puck or establishing body position,” DOPS said. Then they suspended Calvert a single game for his wanton attack.

Wow. Talk about the punishment not fitting the crime.

I guess we’re fortunate that Calvert received any type of suspension at all…especially in light of more recent incidents.

In Game Four of the conference finals, Ruhwedel was tag-teamed into oblivion by a pair of Senators. Derick Brassard softened him up, catching Chad with a stick blade under the visor as they pursued the puck into the corner. Scarcely recovered from the initial blow, Ruhwedel stopped and lunged for the puck. Like a deer stuck squarely in the headlights, he was walloped with a forearm to the head by an onrushing Bobby Ryan.

Neither Brassard nor Ryan were penalized on the play. So much for the careless use of one’s stick, or hitting a foe when they’re in a vulnerable position.

Oh. Pens defenseman Ian Cole did receive a roughing minor. He committed the unpardonable sin of coming to a teammate’s aid. Mustn’t retaliate, you know.

Ryan wasn’t fined or suspended.

Which brings me to the latest infraction—Tommy Wingels’ blatant forearm smash to Wilson’s head in the waning seconds of Game Five. Unlike the Ryan-Ruhwedel affair, which one could reasonably contend was incidental, there was little doubt about the Ottawa forward’s intent.

Plain and simple, he meant to hurt Wilson.

Once again, the referees looked the other way. So did the NHL, which elected not to fine or suspend Wingels.

Incredible.

Heck, I haven’t even mentioned the incidents involving Sidney Crosby, Bryan Rust and Conor Sheary. All received concussions this spring, the result of dangerous or borderline play.

The league’s approach makes no sense, especially in this comparatively enlightened era when the long-term effects of head trauma are coming to light. It’s as if the NHL—doing its best imitation of an ostrich with its noggin stuck in the sand—has all but forgotten its nefarious past, when headhunters like the Pens’ own Matt Cooke effectively ended the career of Bruins star Marc Savard. To say nothing of the plight of former players who are dealing with chronic traumatic encephalopathy and other neurological disorders.

Indeed, after incorporating several new rule changes and making a concerted attempt to punish players for hits to the head over the past few seasons, the NHL seems to have all-but-abandoned a progressive approach this postseason in favor of a return to its Neanderthal roots. A turn that’s put comparatively clean-playing teams like our Penguins at a distinct disadvantage.

To digress, no one wants to see hockey turn into a 60-minute version of the Ice Capades. I, for one, have always enjoyed the physical aspect of the sport, be it a crunching open-ice hit or rugged play along the boards…even the occasional scuffle. I suspect I’m not alone.

And stuff happens…especially in the heat of battle when passions are often stoked to a fever pitch. But nobody wants to see guys get intentionally hurt or maimed. We’re talking about lives and livelihoods.

That what makes the NHL’s recent actions—or inactions as the case may be—so mystifying. If Gary Bettman and the league’s brass are truly interested in growing the game—for my money the fastest, most exquisitely athletic and dynamic sport there is—you think they’d want to punish the transgressors.

If the sight of Crosby—the game’s best player—lying prone on the ice after getting crosschecked in the head doesn’t inspire them to uphold the rules, what will?

I’ll say it again. The laissez affair approach to discipline doesn’t make sense.

It isn’t just the league and the officials who need to clean up their respective acts. The players are culpable, too. They need to respect each other, rather than stretching the boundaries of sportsmanship and decorum to the limits and beyond.

The survival of the sport depends on it.