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| Bertuzzi's Suspension was Arbitrary |
| 03.22.04 (2:17 am) [edit] |
|
The problem I have with the Bertuzzi suspension is procedural and not substantive. Historically, the NHL has treated stick related infractions much more seriously than non stick related infractions. Hitherto, the longest suspension for an elbow, or a punch is Matt Johnson’s sucker punch for which he received 12 games. In this sense there is no point in comparing what happened to Brasher, also a completely unprecedented suspension, with what happened to Moore. What is more, the decision to factor in a victim’s health, whether in the long term or short term, is also completely without precedent. In all, Bertuzzi will miss at a minimum 13 regular season games and 4 playoff games. Potentially he could miss up to 28 playoff games and if the suspension carries into next year god knows how many regular season games. The decision to suspend Bertuzzi for the playoffs is particularly extreme. The NHL has historically been very reluctant to suspend someone for long durations during the playoffs. Claude Lemieux received only two games for what he did to Kris Draper; had he done that in the regular season. it is generally aggreed that he would likely have gotten around 10 games. The NHL’s decision to use a knew unspecified rubric to suspend Bertuzzi is completely arbitrary and seems akin to a judge choosing without explaining himself to hand down a 50 year sentence for a crime that usually nets at most 15 years. What the NHL should have done is handed down a stiff suspension (e.g., last 13 games of the regular season 4 playoff games). Then, in the summer Bettman and company could have sat down with the players union and management and hashed out an agreement that spelled out clear criteria the league would use judge whether a player would be suspended and if so for how long. They could also spell out what penalties would be given out for publicly inciting violence. If it was then decided that the health of the victim of incident should be taken into account, fine. If it was decided that a Moore like incident warranted a 50 game suspension, that is fine too. If the McSorely and Hunter cases proved anything, it is that far from setting the NHL on a new course the odd draconian suspension has further mudded the waters. The system for handing down suspensions is, as more than a few NHL players have already noted, even less predictable then it was before. If you sucker punch a guy, you will get anywhere from between 2 to 12 games. If on the other hand you sucker punch a guy and by some fluke the guy ends up with two fractured vertebra in the subsequent pileup, then you get the stiffest suspension ever handed down. Contrary to what Bettman might think, a fluke occurrence can not be used as precedent: after all, a fluke occurrence is by definition rare. What is worse, since fluke occurrences are by definition rare, Bertuzzi’s punishment is not likely to deter anyone from taking a shot at another player; if they think it through at all, they are going to be thinking, what are the chances. The same thing goes for the fine leveled against the Canucks. In so far, as Clarke can wax poetic about hurting Hossa and Havlet and not get punished, the message the head office is sending is that so long as someone does not end up with two fractured vertebra, such talk is permissible. |
posted by: George (reply)
post date: 03.28.04 (1:44 pm)
I agree.