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Dangerous acts: For real deterrent justice in the NHL

 Michael Johnson
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Dangerous acts: For real deterrent justice in the NHL
Credit: Getty Images

Lately, the rather violent preparatory games of the Habs and several other NHL clubs have made us experience a range of emotions that are generally not very good for our health: anger, disgust, hatred…

Emotions that often have to do with a sense of injustice caused by dangerous actions that have gone largely unpunished by the NHL.

So, in the current state of affairs, often the best a club can do when vicious blows are stupidly dealt to their players is to pick on the perpetrator in packs all evening, as Denis Gauthier and Mathias Brunet suggested, or to apply exactly the same medicine as Xhekaj served up to Stützle to avenge Ridly Greig’s attempt to injure Dach.

Basically, it’s an eye for an eye.

I, too, got caught up in preaching the Law of Talion (said in less academic terms) to my 8-year-old when, on Tuesday night, I saw Greig aiming for Dach’s head, in his blind spot, a good while after the latter had passed the puck.

What do you expect, in 2024 in the NHL, more than 3750 years (yes, yes!) after the first formulations of said law in Babylon, it’s still the same way things work in the NHL, a multi-billion-dollar sports business that should, among other things, serve as a model for our beautiful youth!

Obviously, on the NHL side, as long as it’s people like the subtle George Parros who are knowingly placed at the head of the player safety department, we won’t see a great revolution from which we’ll really care about… player safety! #1984 #Orwell

The solution? Real deterrent justice: mandatory minimum sentences of 5 or 10 matches.

However, the “normal” reflex of the average fan I was last Tuesday night in the company of my son SHOULD NOT be that of humanity’s ancestral law of vengeance: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!

The reflex we should have – and have had for some time now – should be one that makes us formulate instead a slightly more civilized and simple idea like this one:

“What an idiot! He deserves at the very least a five-game suspension without pay for such an act.”

Or 10, even 20 games, if the player is seriously injured in the head (concussion) or knee (sprain, etc).

A repeat offender? Double the bet!

A suspension for as long as the intentionally injured player cannot return to play could even be considered in the most extreme cases…

And we’d also have to think about imposing hefty fines on the teams of offending players. For a five-game suspension, $250,000 minimum? 10 games, $500,000? That would make the players a little more ashamed, and shame is a very strong deterrent…

A few examples
In the case of a double check from behind like Domi’s on Hutson in the3rd out-of-competition game? Five games minimum. On the street, that’d be considered armed robbery!

Vicious, dangerous body checks like those on Greig and Xhekaj? Five games minimum. Attempted injury. Five more if a repeat offender. Five more if injured. This is exactly the kind of hit that has no place in hockey anymore.

Without discussing the appropriateness of playing marginal players against NHL players in preseason, a move like Paré’s on Laine’s knee? Minimum of five games, no matter what league he plays in and even if it wasn’t really intentional.

Serious injury? 10 games mandatory. Too bad for Paré. Don’t hit the knees, it’s too dangerous. Laine will miss at least 25-30.

Just as we wanted to protect the quarterback in football since he’s often in a more vulnerable position, do we want to protect the disc carrier a little better or not? Do we want to try and stop the knee-jerk reflex? Do we want a minimum of justice for the team that loses a player or not?

Of course, for longer suspensions, players could always appeal, and their pleas would then be considered before a final verdict was rendered, but the general idea would be to establish a firm basis based on what serious studies reveal about deterrence, such as the following, found on the Department of Justice Canada website:

Research on the certainty and severity of sentences is applicable to the issue of mandatory minimum sentences (MMS). However, the results of this research taken as a whole suggest that severity may be less important in terms of deterrence than initiatives that increase the certainty of punishment (Miller and Anderson, 1986; von Hirsch et al., 1999).

What’s important, then, and what would really become more of a deterrent in the minds of gamblers, is not so much the severity (duration) of the penalty, but rather the certainty of receiving it!

At the moment, it’s all a bunch of nonsense like “the initial point of contact wasn’t the head, so it’s less serious, less intentional”, which means that we go from no suspension to sometimes five games, as was the case with Gallagher’s disgraceful test on Pelech.

But in many cases, like those of Greig and Xhekaj, it’s still a dangerous and vicious blow even if the head is the second point of contact or if the head and/or neck region are shaken by a blow delivered high! It’s just a matter of luck that both players didn’t suffer any serious injuries.

Regardless of the purity of intentionality – which is always difficult to prove beyond all reasonable doubt – the important thing is to send out and implement a clear message and sanctions as soon as a dangerous gesture could have been avoided and is not purely accidental.

The idea would be to establish the real foundations of a deterrent justice system that’s certain and easy to understand, and known to everyone when they lace up their skates.

Even if there will always be thickheads and repeat offenders, even if nothing will ever be perfect in such a fast-moving and imperfect sport, a clear and civilized deterrent justice system would eradicate a good proportion of vicious and dangerous hits that have nothing to do with hockey, like those of Greig and Xhekaj, Domi and so many others.

Of course, the not-always-collaborative, nor very enlightened NHLPA would also have to agree to such much stricter rules, subject to cutting from 6% (5 games) to 12% (10 games), or even a larger percentage of annual salary for repeat offenders and very vicious, dangerous and serious acts.

It wouldn’t be an easy game to negotiate.

But do you have a better way of making players accountable and helping them to help themselves?

 

A smarter, more respectful contact sport

What’s new?

“Professional hockey is not ringette, it’s a contact sport, a virile sport, it goes fast and we mustn’t distort the game!”

No problem. There’s no question of taking away the hard contact, no question of denaturing the game, and yes, players should continue to play with their heads held high.

It’s simply a question of eliminating, or reducing as much as possible, the dangerous, dirty, stupid and useless hits that have nothing to do with hockey as such.

The “worst” thing that could happen is that we’d see more goals and more good looks because fewer star players would get hurt!

Anyone against?

If the NFL, in a sport where there’s even more contact by the very nature of the game, has managed to better protect its quarterbacks (roughing the passer rule) with a very precise set of rules, why shouldn’t the NHL be able to better protect the disc carrier (or the one who hasn’t had it for a while now?) from completely ridiculous hits like the ones we keep seeing these days?

For the time being, despite all the accumulating evidence on the brain-damaging effects of blows to the head, perhaps the NHL just doesn’t have the will. Maybe violence is too profitable for the NHL, money talks.

But positions such as these, in the wake of Ken Dryden’s long-standing one, must continue to be conveyed and shared.

Revolutions are often made over the long term.

But this is starting to take too long. The players are getting stronger and stronger, the game is getting faster and faster, and the most basic civility – respect for one another – seems to be on the way out.

Take action!

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