Sheriff Shanny’s quest for a new normal

By Darren Eliot –

On the day that the Phoenix Coyotes’ Raffi Torres received the longest suspension in playoff history for his open-ice KO of Chicago Blackhawks’ Marian Hossa, Ottawa Senators’ winger Chris Neil crushes N.Y. Rangers’ center Brian Boyle. Post-game, Rangers’ Coach John Tortorella said the blueprint was in place – that the Neil hit mirrored the Torres hit and logically, so should the punishment.

Playoff posturing aside, Tortorella’s comments point to a pervasive problem with the meting out of punishment in the NHL: No one – and I mean no one – knows what is going on. Fans, players and coaches are mystified to the same degree, albeit, for different reasons. Maybe more distressing – and telling – is that the on-ice officials seem wildly out of sync with the league’s supplemental discipline office. In both the Torres and Neil instances, no infraction was whistled at all. And now, after levying a 25-game ban on Torres, Neil skates into Game 6 with nary a fine.

So, there you have the confusion. The hits look similar in real time, even though they differ wildly when scrutinized under the punch list of criteria set forth by the NHL:

• Was the hit delivered late (more than half a second after the player played the puck)?
• Did the player leave his feet and launch into his target?
• Was the head picked?
• Was the head the principle point of contact?
• Was the player injured?
• Is the player a repeat offender?

In Torres’ case, the answer was yes on all counts. Plus, the Torres play was interference and charging at a bare minimum. Therefore, Torres has no defense. The number, while seeming arbitrary, has basis in keeping him out of all potential playoff games the Coyotes could appear in. Any games not served this spring would carry over to the fall regular season.

In Neil’s case, the answer to the above league checklist was no on every level. That doesn’t make it any easier to take if you are Brian Boyle, the Rangers, or a fan of the Blueshirts. More unpalatable is the decision to forego any further supplemental discipline, however ratified and rationalized. Even with all of the insight, analysis and video explanations courtesy of VP of player safety, Brendan Shanahan, each incident rendering appears independent and random. Potentially, that is how it has to be, how it always has been.

At a minimum, though, the referees have to become more vigilant making calls in the course of the game. Players, then, can begin to understand what the expectations are from game to game and situation to situation. Coaches railing against the officials in the playoffs? That’s normal and won’t change, as the NHL continues its quest to establish a “new normal” when it comes to a finished check as a normal hockey play.

To most of us, there is nothing normal about all of this at all.