Scott Burnside Sings Stop Making Sense

No rhyme or reason to NHL's 'discipline'

I don't typically go to ESPN for news, especially hockey, but was sent a link. Thought I'd pass it along.

I know that Colin Campbell has to go because he just doesn't have a clue what he's doing. He doesn't have any qualified advisers, or he refuses to listen to them, or he's listening to the wrong ones. Whichever it is, it makes him detrimental to the league, to the players, and to the fans.

I'm most concerned about the Cooke and Downie hits, though you can't call Downie's a hit. How is there no one leaning in, and saying, "Colin, you can't ignore this and focus on Ovechkin. It shouldn't even have been a game misconduct. Look at what this idiot Downie did. What if Crosby goes down in a week and it’s the same knee that Downie targeted? Think, Colin. Take care of Downie and regain some face." Again, maybe the question is how could that advise go unheeded?

By the way, its not a stretch of the imagination to consider a headshot an 'intent to injure', especially if the entire disciplinary practice is going to be so arbitrary. Thus, the Richards, Cooke, and Downie hits could have been suspensions, (and Downie's can only be seen as an intent to injure). The issue, then, is that Colin Campbell doesn't see these acts as worthy of league intervention, or, he isn't smart enough to come up with a solution, and that, friends, is the problem.

Despite being adrift in all this fog and ambiguity, we can see one thing clearly: the league's refusal to replace Campbell signals a complete failure in leadership. Team NHL either has no captain, or it has one that isn't fit to man the helm.