Only injuries draw suspensions...

by Chris meet Alex on Dec 19, 2009 1:51 AM EST Comment 17 comments

It's ~~absurd~~ ironic that a league that needed an entire season off to learn the painful lesson about calling obstruction regardless of whether it has a major impact on a scoring opportunity, has such a hard time with the idea of fining and suspending players regardless of whether the infraction caused an injury.

In my post Colin Campbell is a joke, I made the case that by only enforcing dangerous plays that cause an injury instead of ALL dangerous plays, you are actually reenforcing the idea that you can "get away" with dirty and dangerous plays the majority of the time. You just have to hope that you don't get unlucky and actually cause a fluke injury (which in turn might mean a suspension - a risk that guys who cross the line will take).

If the NFL disciplinarians were running the NHL show, Tanner Glass would very likely be little lighter in the wallet tomorrow and on notice that the league is watching him. Why? Because he made a dangerous hit, that deserves punishment.

Tanner Glass starts a shift at 5 minutes of the second period and attempts to hit Alex Semin as he's clearing the puck from the defensive zone. Semin is not easy to hit cleanly, and as many do, he whiffs. Later in that same shift, Semin is once again in good defensive position making a clear of the zone when Glass tries to hit him a second time. This time instead of skating away, Semin jams on the brakes and jumps around the hit.

At this point I will give the standard caveats that "yes, it's an extremely fast game" and "yes, the refs have a very difficult job" and "yes, occasionally they are going to miss things"... they are human. But this is a missed call. This is a penalty.

I watched this play unfold and one thought immediately crossed my mind the instant I saw it.

"That play looked EXACTLY like the one that Ovechkin got suspended for!"

In going back and reviewing the footage again, I realized I was wrong. That play was MUCH MORE EGREGIOUS!

Look at how much FURTHER he extends his leg to hit Semin, when CLEARLY he was going to whiff again. I know video is crappy (taken from my cell of my TV) but I think you can still see what to me clearly looks more dangerous than Ovie's hit... furthermore this looks, to my eye, intentional.

Thankfully, for everyone involved, Semin managed to get enough out of the way that he was not injured. But you can bet your arse, if he was left writhing in pain on the ice after this hit, it would definitely have been called a pentalty, and probably a suspension.

More than just inconsistent and aggravating, this inconsistency is dangerous. I understand why refs missed this call; they're human. I don't understand why the league doesn't supplementarily discipline players a few game checks for this stuff even when a penalty isn't called in the game. I've heard the lip-service from the league that they do so, but I don't buy it.

To me it's bush-league to only punish upon injury... punish for what happened regardless of result. anything else is encourages trying to "get away with" bad behavior.

If this FanPost is written by someone other than one of the blog's authors, the opinions expressed in it do not necessarily reflect those of this blog or SB Nation.

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Great stuff. I had the same reaction watching it live and I thought, “Well, maybe it was just the angle. Maybe I missed something”. Thanks for providing the video.

by David M. Getz on Dec 19, 2009 9:25 AM EST reply actions

wow, I missed that watching it last night, but that is an intentionally dangerous attempt at taking out Semin’s knee.

Fun fact: A popular opinion can still be stupid.

by RedBirdie on Dec 19, 2009 11:22 AM EST reply actions

That really is amazing.

"The Caps fan doesn't say, 'is the glass half full' or 'is the glass half empty'. He wonders when the glass is going to spill."

by gfcaps fan on Dec 19, 2009 11:26 AM EST reply actions

And Gleason wasn’t even that badly injured (when Ovi got his major penalty and suspended)

Rocking the Red since 1975

by CapsFan75 on Dec 19, 2009 11:58 AM EST reply actions

Completely agree, and I’m not as sympathetic to the refs for not at least calling it a trip (it was not called right?). Not that the Caps’ PP would have made VAN pay for it but it was a blatant trip. Semin, of all Caps, is just not going to get the benefit of the doubt. Ever. It doesn’t really make sense to me. He’s not the only guy that had some notorious dives early in his career and the last 2-3 years he’s been much better about not diving. But that label has stuck on him and he’s paying for it. Why other certain players don’t get stuck with that tag is beyond me.

Definitely was more egregious, definitely only not punished because of no injury. Not shocked at all. Wouldn’t even be the first example of an extremely dangerous hit on a Cap that went unpunished because the Cap got up (that would be Dubinsky on Green).

In an ideal world all ten fingers would be on my left hand so my right hand could just be a fist for punching.

by Fehr and Balanced on Dec 19, 2009 3:35 PM EST reply actions

because certain other players with reputations for diving are Canadian?

Fun fact: A popular opinion can still be stupid.

by RedBirdie on Dec 19, 2009 3:54 PM EST up reply actions

True, but I think you’d have a hard time drawing a Canadian conspiracy theory from NHL discipline. Green is Canadian and Koci is not. Neither Kaleta or Gleason is Canadian, but Briere is. I think the Canadian stuff is more of a factor in media discussions than league decisions.

In an ideal world all ten fingers would be on my left hand so my right hand could just be a fist for punching.

by Fehr and Balanced on Dec 19, 2009 4:19 PM EST up reply actions

I know it drives me crazy because in my mind Semin has gone pretty much 180 degrees on the diving. In the last few season he seems to realize that he’s now a strong enough skater that in situations that he used to dive, if he just stays strong on his skates he can usually get a grade-A scoring chance out of it. It’s why at times he looks like a 50 goal scorer.

The only theory I have as to why he can’t shed the diving tag is that because he is such a good skater and is so hard to hit cleanly, when someone does take him down they’ve gone to great lengths to do so, and his attempt to power through it leaves him off balance and the net result is an awkward tumble and what looks somewhat like the kind of intentional tumbles he used to take. You look at this hit and he made an amazingly athletic maneuver to get out of the way and yet it looks like one of his old dives. That’s the only thing I can think of… it sucks.

DC, where Hockey is a baffling ordeal.

by Chris meet Alex on Dec 19, 2009 8:02 PM EST up reply actions

Want to add to this… By unfathomably missing the tripping call, the ref’s changed the outcome of the game.

Does Mason Raymond score his game-tying goal in the 2nd if this play had been called properly?

His goal was scored at 17:39 of the 2nd… what would have been potentially 20 seconds after a caps’ PP would have expired (had they not scored…had they scored it would have been 3-1 and a completely different ballgame.)

Again, yes, they are human… Yes missed calls happen, but when they are so blatant (trip, not knee on knee, that’s easier to miss) it’s inexcusable.

by FFSEnough on Dec 23, 2009 8:44 AM EST up reply actions

Rec’d. Dead on.

Atta dinnin stick a who!

by Gould Old Days on Dec 19, 2009 5:17 PM EST reply actions

Nice work. I don’t know if renhoak takes requests, but maybe he can work his magic and pull a high quality video of the play. Worth a shot at least.

"So much on my mind I just can't recline. Blastin' holes in the night 'til she bled sunshine."

by Laich It Or Lump It on Dec 21, 2009 8:54 AM EST reply actions

Get your hands off my Kool Aid.

In an ideal world all ten fingers would be on my left hand so my right hand could just be a fist for punching.

by Fehr and Balanced on Dec 21, 2009 12:19 PM EST up reply actions

You should have to pay for such services.

"So much on my mind I just can't recline. Blastin' holes in the night 'til she bled sunshine."

by Laich It Or Lump It on Dec 21, 2009 2:15 PM EST up reply actions

I baked him a batch of cookies.

In an ideal world all ten fingers would be on my left hand so my right hand could just be a fist for punching.

by Fehr and Balanced on Dec 21, 2009 4:50 PM EST up reply actions

Didn’t see that play live, but that is horrible. Glass sticks his leg out far more blatantly than AO or even Laraque did for their suspensions. Can’t say I’m surprised nothing has been done/said about it though.

Of all our iniquities ignorance may be the worst

by Killer_Carlson on Dec 21, 2009 9:46 PM EST reply actions

Some perspective…

I watched that entire game live. I never mentally flagged this as a major issue when watching the game, but do remember wondering how it wasn’t a trip. I don’t think I am alone.

When I watch games, I feel pretty good about being able to pick out that kind of stuff. The general rule of “If it looks weird, it’s probably illegal” holds just about all the time. Further-more (unrelated to this issue) if a guy’s feet are moving and he isn’t, it’s probably a penalty by somebody (or it’s Hot Pocket skating back into his zone). Basically trying to say, I feel like I’m pretty attentive.

Now, after reading the article about how the NHL’s video review room works (and catching the tidbit about flagging dangerous plays for review), I can easily see how this is missed even by NHL review after the fact.

In the NFL, teams have the ability to send tape for review of questionable plays. Does the NHL have this ability? Did anyone else on the ice feel like it was as dangerous as it really was? Did Semin think he was the potential victim of a violent collision? Does he know how to tell Bruce to send in the tape?

Either way, the NHL’s dicipline policy has a quick-turn-around that may make it hard to catch these types of things in time to suspend/fine before the next game. Do we know if the NHL is willing to retroactively punish if they find something later from a previous game?

Lastly… I find it hard to let the Ref’s off the hook. It’s one thing if this had been after the puck was gone, or some possible interference behind the play, but Semin was carrying the puck. His legs are taken out from under him. There should always be one set of orange-banded eyes on the puck carrier at all times, sometimes two. No excuse for missing something so simple. Missing that it was Knee-on-Knee and worthy of a Game Misconduct is another thing.

by FFSEnough on Dec 23, 2009 8:38 AM EST reply actions

I guess I have a problem with the fact that though the NHL probably does that standards in place for reviewing dangerous plays (and if they don’t that’s embarassing) they don’t have the will to properly enforce them. They clearly are either negligent in their failure to properly analyze/review the game or are reluctant to punish these plays out of the well reported (in my mind debunked) fear of hurting the aggressive and physical element of the game.

It seems like this is the downside of having a former player running discipline. I always think that situations like these benefit from having both somebody who’s been there and an “outsider” as part of the process.

DC, where Hockey is a baffling ordeal.

by Chris meet Alex on Dec 23, 2009 3:42 PM EST reply actions

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