Nathan Horton displays the "fencing response," a sign of neurological damage.

On Tuesday morning, the Bruins announced that Horton would miss the rest of the playoffs with a severe concussion.

Tuesday afternoon, NHL disciplinarian Michael Murphy announced that Rome would be suspended for four games.

So we are supposed to feel sorry for… Aaron Rome?

According to Manny Malhotra, we are:

“It’s devastating,” said center Manny Malhotra. “To be so close, to be playing in your dream, to now have it taken away, it obviously hurts a lot. That being said, he’s still a huge part of our team in that room. Just his attitude, his mentality, his focus, he’s going to help our guys a lot. I think as a group we don’t agree with the suspension.”

Here’s an idea: You don’t want to miss the Stanley Cup playoffs, don’t leap off your skates and drill a guy in the head more than a second after he’s released the puck.

Canucks coach Alain Vigneault says Rome “isn’t a dirty player, never has been, never will be.” Whether he is or not is irrelevant. It was a dirty play.

Here’s Andrew Ference in February, after teammate Daniel Paille (not a dirty player; never disciplined before) was suspended four games for a head shot on Raymond Sawada (who was unhurt):

“It’s a bad hit, right?” said Ference. “You hear it from every player after they do it, they feel bad, and same thing, I talked to Danny [Paille] and he feels bad.

“You can’t be a hypocrite about it, though. I’ve thought about this a lot and had plenty of time to put things in perspective over the last year. Sidney Crosby has been very vocal about the head shots and blindside hits since he suffered one in the Winter Classic, but what did Crosby say after Cooke hit Savvy last year? Nothing.

“I thought a lot about that. You want to be a good teammate, but you shouldn’t be a hypocrite about it.” 

So here’s the question: If that was Henrik Sedin being strapped to a backboard and carted off on a stretcher, would Alan Vigneault be protesting that it wasn’t a dirty hit?

Photo: Nathan Horton from Getty Images

Mario Lemieux

Statement from Pittsburgh Penguins owner Mario Lemieux, in the wake of a game Feb. 12 in which his team and the New York Islanders combined for 346 penalty minutes, 10 ejections, 15 fighting majors and 20 misconducts, leading to suspensions for three players (two from NYI, one from Pittsburgh), and a $100,000 fine for the Islanders:

“We, as a league, must do a better job of protecting the integrity of the game and the safety of our players. We must make it clear that those kinds of actions will not be tolerated and will be met with meaningful disciplinary action.

“If the events relating to Friday night reflect the state of the league, I need to re-think whether I want to be a part of it.”

Hypocrisy is such an ugly thing. Especially from someone who we’re supposed to admire. But it just goes to reinforce the lesson that greatness on the playing field or on the ice often does not translate to the real world.

Mario Lemieux dares to speak of “protecting the intregrity of the game” when the team he owns leads the NHL in penalty minutes (1,113), majors (63) and penalty minutes per game (19.2),

He has the unmitigated gall to speak of the safety of the players when he employs the biggest cheap shot artist in the game, Matt Cooke.

Mario Lemieux weeps his crocodile tears about “travesty” and a “sideshow” while Marc Savard sits at home in a darkened room and wonders if he’ll ever live a normal life again, let alone play the game he loves.

I don’t for a moment condone what the Islanders did. But I can understand it. You get abused often enough, eventually you’re going to fight back. Unfortunately the Islanders brought a gun to a knife fight, but the brawl(s) never would have happened at all if the Penguins hadn’t laid the groundwork, not only with the Islanders, but with the entire league. Mario Lemieux can point a finger at the Islanders and the NHL all he wants, but the person he really needs to be pointing at resides in his mirror.  And if he really wants to take his stick and his puck and go home, there’s just one thing to say: Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out, Mario.

“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” – Hosea 8:7.

Colin Campbell

Last March, NHL senior vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell declined to suspend Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke for a deliberately dirty hit that knocked out Boston’s Marc Savard. In his ruling, he mourned the fact that he could do nothing about the hit (which is a fallacy, as I blogged about here). And then he pointed out that he had coached Marc Savard, he liked Marc Savard, and oh, he felt just terrible about it.

In 2007, Colin Campbell wrote the following emails (discovered by intrepid hockey blogger Tyler Dellow to be regarding Marc Savard) to former director of officiating Stephen Walkom:

“Your answer re: his high stick calls and the score of the game were horse [bleep]. The 3rd call on [player] was while they were down 5 on 4 and on a def zone face off vs that little fake artist [player] I had him in [city] biggest faker going.”

“I know Murph and Kinger like [player] as a player but my view of him is this exactly… he puts his whining ahead of the game.”

Of course the main point of the email revelations is that this is the head of discipline for the NHL, writing to the head of officiating, complaining about calls made on his son. That’s bad enough in its own right. But these comments about Marc Savard — and you know this is only the tip of the iceberg; how many other players, coaches or officials does Campbell hold a grudge against? — absolutely reek of pettiness, vindictiveness and, combined with his post-Cooke hit comments, flat-out hypocrisy.

And this man is the sole arbiter of justice for the National Hockey League.

This is something that might be brushed off, as Campbell himself (who called it “much ado about nothing”) and NHL vice president Bill Daly (“Any suggestion that Colin Campbell performs his job with any less than 100% integrity at all times and in every decision he makes is way off base and just factually wrong”) have attempted to do, if Campbell had been the model of consistency and reliability when it comes to meting out discipline. To say he hasn’t is something of an understatement.

Whether you want to label it the “Wheel of Justice” as Yahoo’s Puck Daddy does, or the “Secret flow chart,” as described by DownGoesBrown, NHL justice under Colin Campbell has been a punch line. Only it’s really no joke when players have no idea what constitutes suspendable offenses. Jack Edwards is probably most accurate when he calls it “dart board justice.”

To put it bluntly, a trained chimpanzee could do as good a job. Better, because a chimpanzee doesn’t have any secret grudges or hidden agendas. That Daly actually uses the word “integrity” in describing Campbell is something of a sick joke.

That Campbell is being defended so vehemently by the powers-that-be in charge of the NHL just goes to show you what a good ol boys’ club the league is. That such a beautiful sport, played by (a majority of) decent young men, is in the hands of these incompetents is pathetic.

And perhaps just as reprehensible is the response (or lack thereof) of so many in the “mainstream” hockey media. For every Kevin Paul Dupont, who writes in the Boston Globe that Campbell should go, there is a Bob McKenzie, who astoundingly tries to spin in a video at www.tsn.ca that Campbell’s March ruling on Cooke actually proves that he’s not biased. I never thought Bob McKenzie was George Orwell.

So what can we, as hockey fans, do? All is can suggest is to keep the conversation going. Push for a change — suggested and endorsed by many — to a three-person panel to rule on discipline. For the sake of justice, for the sake of player safety, for the sake of integrity, this needs to happen.

Photo: Colin Campbell from nhl.com

Wow, really?

Do you, as hockey fans, support your players no matter what? If one of your players deliberately injures an opponent, do you firmly stand behind him?

I hope I’m not the only person who doesn’t.

Discuss.

When “High Sticking” is an Understatement

Anyway, as fans, we can whine and complain about the officials. It’s what we do. And we’ll be sure to note that (obviously) the officials have it in for OUR boys, who are clean-living, honest and reverent, and would never dive, high-stick or surreptitiously punch an opponent.

Coaches, however, are not fans. And a coach should not be whining about the officials. Yes, I’m looking at you, Lindy Ruff.

The officials were not out to get the Buffalo Sabres in their first-round series against the Boston Bruins. Trust me on this. That goalie interference that Ruff whined about in Game 4 was identical to one called on the Bruins in Game 1. In six games, the Bruins were whistled for 34 penalties, the Sabres for 36. And the officials missed calls on BOTH sides.

What Ruff really should cry about is the fact that the Sabres went 0-for-19 on the power play. THAT would be understandable.

But no. At the end of Game 5 in Buffalo, Zdeno Chara was returning to the bench when he was slashed from behind by Paul Gaustad. Chara turned around and punched Gaustad in the face. And Ruff wanted Chara suspended as the instigator. (!)

“It’s a serious risk of an instigator when you come in throwing punches,” said Lindy Ruff. “They’ve got to take a hard look at that. Anything in the last five minutes is stupid to do. I like the fact that we had one grab him around the knees, one guy grab him around the waist, and another guy grab him around the neck. And the big man went down. You get in a situation like that, everybody knows the rules. You can’t start slugging people. That’s exactly what Chara was doing. Our response was good to that play.”

Look, you poke a bear, don’t be surprised (or outraged) when the bear turns around and slugs you back, or worse. Anyway, how Ruff could actually make a statement like that and keep a straight face is beyond me (He LIKED the fact that it took three Sabres to bring Chara down? And while we’re on the subject, where’s the penalty for third – and fourth – man in?)

For the record, Chara was given an automatic suspension, which was rescinded less than an hour after the game (probably amongst laughter and a few “are you kiddings”?). Here’s the official rule:

“An instigator of an altercation shall be a player or goalkeeper who by his actions or demeanor demonstrates any/some of the following criteria: distance traveled; gloves off first; first punch thrown; menacing attitude or posture; verbal instigation or threats; conduct in retaliation to a prior game (or season) incident; obvious retribution for a previous incident in the game or season.”

Um yeah, so no suspension for belting someone who slashes you with two seconds left in the game.

Anyway, the bottom line is, blaming the officials for the failure of a team (and the failure, by extention, of the coach) is childish, classless and embarrassing. Lindy Ruff should be happy he’s not coaching in the NBA, or his wallet would be decidedly lighter. Like, $35,000 lighter.

Patrick Kane warms up at the Pepsi Center for a recent game.

Last night at the Avs game, my gay friend asked why I had fallen down on the job and failed to send him the shirtless pictures of Patrick Kane in the Limo. See, if there is a naked or semi-naked picture of a hockey player, I’m going to find it. It’s just a talent I have. Needless to say, when I got home I started combing the Internet for said pictures that I missed while traveling to Moscow.

Not only was I disappointed that the pictures weren’t more racy, but I was flabbergasted at the media’s attempt to make a mountain out of molehill. Headlines still abound about the “scandalous” pictures, talking about the shocking behavior of an NHL star.

Excuse me, but when did being male and shirtless become scandalous?   Was it the beer he was holding?  He is of legal drinking age, after all.  There was nothing illegal in what he was doing.  He didn’t even appear drunk.  I mean this isn’t a raging frat party with naked girls and cocaine.  And he didn’t get drunk and get behind the wheel of a Ferrari. Yet based on some of the media reaction you would think he was caught with a crack pipe and gun under the drivers seat of his car trying to cross the state line.

But that’s not all. The kicker was that the organization (presumably) made him issue an apology, which he did in true NHL fashion by saying he was sorry for embarrassing the team and that it was time he grew up.

At that point, I think I threw up in my mouth.

Not only has the NHL media training stripped every ounce of personality from these kids, but now we’re supposed to believe that they are complete robots and simply tools of the NHL business; that those guys we go watch play every night exist for one reason only – to play hockey. Maybe they’re even bred that way! (I want to know are they Deltas, or Epsilons, but I suppose that’s too much information for the public to know.) I can’t say how much this attitude disgusts me, and I’m not the only one.

Of course, a few traditional purists from unmentioned regions commented on some of these stories, stating that this was a disgrace after Kane’s alleged “taxi driver assault” (a accusation that was actually unfounded in the end.) These are probably the same people that thought the NHL’s scare tactic video about the dangers of social networking was a great idea.

I guess the primary reason this story makes me so sad is Patrick Kane seemed to be the sole tasty piece of chocolate in the bland sea of vanilla that the NHL has become (see the latest Colorado Avalanche Mailbag for painfully boring player quotes.) He had the cockiness, the swagger and the audacity of a Brett Hull or a Jeremy Roenik. We all know that these guys are human, that they have differing opinions and that they have a life outside of hockey.

What is it about hockey culture that makes it necessary to hide something as simple as an opinion? Let’s face it – the NHL is filled with classy guys. We don’t have the gangsters, meth users and murders. So why do we have to keep every little thing they do a secret? I don’t know about you, but I miss the stories about Dino Ciccarelli getting arrested for indecent exposure for walking around his front yard naked or Ed Belfour getting drunk and puking in a police car and trying to bribe the cop with a million dollars. People love a good scandal – it brings fans to the game. We’re all human. We all screw up. We all like to have a good time. What’s wrong with letting these guys be human? Let us enjoy their humanity!

And if you’re trying to tap into a potentially huge population out there, say, one that represents over 50% of the population, let those shirtless pictures circulate!

Photo: Patrick Kane by Goddess Sasha. Copyright 2009-2010. All Rights Reserved.

“I know Matt Cooke is a repeat offender, he’s been suspended twice in the last year. I can’t suspend Matt Cooke for being a repeat offender, I have to find a reason. Right now our rules say that shoulders to head are legal. Matt Cooke did not jump, and did not do anything that we found illegal in his actions even though again you don’t like what happened.” — Colin Campbell, on TSN

Outrage. How can any hockey fan feel anything but outrage at this mockery of a ruling? What adds insult to injury is how Campbell attempts to justify himself. You have to find a reason, Mr. Campbell? How about deliberate attempt to injure? Check the rule book — it’s right there, under “match penalties”:

“A match penalty shall be imposed on any player or goalkeeper who deliberately attempts to injure an opponent IN ANY MANNER.” (emphasis mine)

That the referees missed the call on the ice is irrelevant. You yourself have imposed suspensions after missed calls.

But you’re not going to do it this time around, are you? And we know why. You blew it on the Mike Richards cheap shot on David Booth, and you’re falling back on that “precedent” to justify this miscarriage of justice. According to you, two wrongs make a right.

“Campbell’s decision signals that players are free to seek out unsuspecting opponents, launch blindside hits to their heads that leave them with scrambled brains, and fear no consequence in terms of penalties or suspensions. ‘Hits to the head are legal, if you want to look at it that way,’’ said Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli. ‘They’re legal.’’’ — Fluto Shinzawa, Boston Globe

So there’s the (unintended, I’m sure, but blatantly obvious) fallout from Campbell’s “ruling.”

“It was a late hit, he followed though with the elbow, he hit him in the back off the head, & Cooke has a track record of these types of hits. The fact that he was not suspended is ludicrous, and is a message to the Bruins and every other team that they shouldn’t wait to ‘let the league deal with the offending player’ and they should settle the score on the ice. This will result in more injuries to talented players, in an already watered-down league. Today’s ruling by Campbell was very bad news for this league.” — message board commenter

NHL officials wonder why the casual sports fan looks upon their league as a farce. This is why. The head of discipline can’t bring himself to do what’s right, and leaves the inmates to run the asylum. Don’t be surprised, Mr. Bettman and Mr. Campbell, if the next player you see carried off the ice is loaded into a hearse, not an ambulance. And you’ll have nobody to blame but yourselves.

Reportedly during a radio interview yesterday from the NHL general managers’ meeting, you responded to a question about possible discipline regarding Matt Cooke’s hit on Marc Savard Sunday by saying “it wasn’t an elbow.”

Please. Let’s watch the video one more time.

Cooke could have hit Savard with a solid open-ice body check. Instead, he deliberately moved his arm so it made contact with Marc’s head. Whether it was his elbow, shoulder, knee, foot, stick or a tire iron makes no difference (for the record, you can see that it’s neither precisely his elbow nor his shoulder, but somewhere in between that makes the connection). Are you going to make a decision on a suspension based on a few inches? Matt Cooke deliberately attempted to injure Marc Savard, and succeeded. No ifs, and, or buts about it.

I’m certainly not counting on you giving Cooke the 10-game suspension he deserves. Not after you handed Derek Boogard a pathetic two games for a hideous knee-on-knee hit. Not after you ignored Tomas Plekanec butt-ending David Krejci in the face. NHL discipline is, in a word, a joke. But as Marc Savard suffers the pain of a Grade 2 concussion, maybe, just maybe, this time, you’ll do the right thing.

Just imagine this: What if that was Sidney Crosby being carried off the ice on a stretcher? Because if you don’t stop this now, it very well may be, in the very near future.

Sincerely yours,
Savvy

The poor Steve Moore saga drags on, and the longer it drags on, the more furious it makes me.  I’m pretty much a “it’s part of the game” when people unfortunately get injured, but no matter how many times I look at the film, I can’t see any justification for this.  And I feel so horribly for the guy, who continued to be directly harassed.  Few things in professional sports make me want to cry, but the injustice in this whole scenario I  find incredibly depressing.  It really gives the league a black eye, more than a few “denigrating” words.

The latest on Steve Moore

The video of the incident (if you haven’t seen it)

And finally, an unsung hero who is someone I have always respected — Andrei Nikolishin, who was keeping an eye on the situation and immediately jumped on Bertuzzi to stop the attack.  He was only in Colorado a short time, but was loved by his teammates, and has wherever he has gone and, if you’re interested, is still playing in Russia, captain of Traktor Chelyabinsk in the KHL.

I’m not only saying this because I am a Colorado fan.  Anyone who knows me knows I try to be completely objective when it comes to the league. In fact, I tend to be more hard on my team than on other teams.  But as I’ve said before, I am more about the individual players than I am a team.  And when people’s livelihoods are effected, I can’t help but be saddened.