Thursday, March 10, 2011

NHL 100% to blame for latest calamity

Over the past couple of days i have spent countless hours listening to talk radio, watching hockey analysts, and talking to friends about what unfolded at the Bell Centre Tuesday night.  I'm exhausted.  My opinion is this: Zdeno Chara should have been suspended for his illegal hit on Max Pacioretty, regardless of his intent.  To say that what he did was a split-second, in the heat of the play type act does not get him off the hook.  You could say that every hit from behind that has resulted in a suspension was also non-premeditated, and also simply in the heat of the moment.  They all still got suspended.  The problem here is that like Richards' hit on Booth and Cooke's hit on Savard last year, they didn't have a rule in place to correctly penalize the offender.  They changed the rule after the Cooke hit to make any hit to the head illegal and liable for suspension.  But it was too late, the damage had already been done; Savard is currently at home suffering headaches every day, his life in shambles.  And now this, a "hockey play" that has resulted in Max Pacioretty being millimeters away from paralysis.  Well maybe after enough outcry they may change the rules once again, but again, it will be too late.  The league has proven time and again that they're not forward thinking, that they simply react and repair.  When someone eventually gets killed on the ice what will they do then?  How do you repair a situation like that?  I wouldn't mind hearing Gary Bettman's answer to that question.  

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