Last night, Brendan Shanahan told the hockey world what he thought of Max Pacioretty’s hit on Kris Letang when he handed down a three-game suspension to the Canadiens’ forward. Today, Pacioretty responded to the punishment. To make a long story, short: he isn’t happy with the three-game mandatory unpaid vacation.
“It’s tough to agree with (the decision) when you see a lot of other things that have happened, but I’ve obviously got to just keep my mouth shut and take it right now,” Pacioretty said at Habs’ practice this afternoon. All players ever ask for is consistency and Patches thinks Shanahan missed the mark on this one. It’s an understandable reaction.
He also took issue to the league’s disciplinarian comparing the hit to Matt Cooke’s hit that ruined Marc Savard’s career. “I felt he put himself in a vulnerable position,” Pacioretty said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have even thought about hitting him because of the way the wind is blowing right with head shots, but I’d like to see a little bit of consistency. If the onus is on the hitter every single time I’d be fine with a suspension, but you’ve seen instances where they’ve placed the onus on the person receiving the hit as well so I’m confused and a lot of other players are confused right now.”
No wonder Pacioretty said he should keep his mouth shut. It’s understandable that Pacioretty is upset, but he may be off base with his comments. Off the record, most NHL players we’ve talked to shared they aren’t afraid of the suspensions eliminating hitting because they know what to expect now. We’ve heard that players are MORE comfortable hitting this season because they understand what is allowed and what will not be permitted because of the transparent nature of Shanahan’s rulings (explanations, videos, etc.). Even last season, players wondered what kind of hits would be permitted and which hits would be punished. Shanahan has done his best to eliminate any confusion.
Pacioretty may be confused where the line between right and wrong falls these days, but his concerns are not as widespread as he may think. Then again, as more people get suspended—we may here more of these comments.