We’re getting all sorts of reaction to the Hossa non-suspension, especially since it’s tied directly to the Alex Ovechkin hit from earlier this season. As soon as I saw the hit, I did a literal facepalm, knowing I’d spend the next few days saying the same thing again and again while linking to opinions and reactions from all over the interwebs.
Eric Duhatschek of the Globe & Mail breaks down the decision of Colin Campbell and the NHL, says that the league will always be fighting for consistency as long as they treat the playoffs and regular season the same.
People are always asking Colin Campbell, the NHL’s discipline czar, for consistency, which is sometimes an impossible task, given how every incident or infraction that he reviews is a separate entity in and of itself, always just a shade different from the one that came before.
However, the one area where Campbell has been consistent throughout the years is his view that playoff games are more meaningful than regular-season games and thus, his suspensions always reflect that. To Campbell, a one-game playoff suspension is the equivalent of a two-game regular-season ban just because so much more is on the line at this time of year.
So, it wasn’t exactly the same hit. Yet we want the exact same punishment.
As always, another chance for me to raise my flag for standardized punishment. Take Colin Campbell’s subjectivity out of it. But then again, if the NHL did that we wouldn’t have anything to talk about.