T.C. wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 10:46 am
Dave's a mess wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 8:36 am
T.C. wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 6:56 am
this is why the enforcer role needs to come back. look at reaves, he can actually play the game pretty well. hell, parros too. and people wouldn't fuck around like that jerk off wilson.
The NHL doesn't want guys like Tony Twist or John Scott that are only in the League because they can beat everybody up. They want guys like Reaves and Wilson, that are tough, but can play a role well the rest of the time, and let the league supplementary dicscipline act as a deterrent for bad on ice behavior. The problem is that only works if the supplementary discipline actually disciplines. Then you get left with teams like the Rangers that are pissed off and left to dole out there own justice, but are ill equipped to do so. You have to pick a lane and commit to it, and the NHL has done a crappy job of it. If they want to get rid of dirty play and minimize nights like last night (though that was extreme), you have to make the supplementary discipline severe enough that players actually fear it enough to change behavior. It worked on hits to the head 10ish years ago, but now it's lost all it's teeth. Time to start over.
it's an agreement with NHLPA. i feel like the owners/GMs really don't care if the NHL wants to suspend a psychopath for infinity games, they have other pieces. it's the NHLPA that has always gone to the mat on these areas for their players. it's ridiculously short-sighted, as they always end up hurting their other players. just dumb as fuck. i think, if there is a game in which it is determined that supplemental discipline is appropriate, that players forfeits their salary for that game and has to match that amount out of pocket. it's not a crippling amount of money but it's significant. a $1m player would pay $25k, a $10m player would pay $250k. that's for a first offense, and it goes up from there, including eventually fining (a painfully significant amount of money) the coach, GM, organization, and permanent ban for the player.
Yes, this is largely a CBA issue, but not entirely. DOPS is rightfully concerned about consistency in suspensions, but rarely do they actually take any action when there isn't really any precident, like with the Wilson thing the other night. They'd never issued a suspension for something exactly like that, but had 0 interest in doing so for the first time. Predicting suspension length for hits to head and normal hockey plays gone bad isn't that hard anymore since they have so many previous rulings to use. Figure out the base layer, then add a multiplier for previous history if applicable. When there isn't any, they punt, because they're not willing and/or able set new precident. That's on the League/Parros. When it's that easy to figure out the discipline for any serious fan, why do you need so many high executives in the department? If you're going to have a Department of Player Safety that's more than a glorified excel formula, put them to work to actually make the players safer.
The NHLPA is responsible for all the appeals that end up reducing the biggest suspensions for the dirtiest players. That's always gross since the guy in the hospital is a member of the union too. Bottom line, it's going to take both the League and PA to work together to make any real change, and given their history, I don't like the odds.