3 games ??? I actually would not question it (crime and punishment) but how you can dish out 3 games for that hit and give a repeat stick swinging douche 5 games for yet again another violet incident.
THe NHL needs to find some penalty model as there is no consistency.
We will never see consistency, that's been proven time and time again. You bring up Keith I'm assuming, who got 6 games. Multiple offender, I said he should get 20 games. But let's really look at this for a second, thankfully Coyle was not seriously hurt. So we are looking at 6 games for a repeat offender who caused Coyle to get a couple of stitches and played on. Bellemare got 1 game for running a guy head first into the boards, could have broken his neck or killed him, that's only worth 1 game.
Schenn jumped in to high hits 7 or 8 times in one playoff series, the final one being a jump into a guys head into the glass. If Oshie ends up eating through a straw someday because of the headshot, does 3 games fit the crime? If he ends up like Junior Seau and can't handle the long term effects and takes his life, is that worth more than a couple of stitches?
No one disagreed that Keith is an idiot and a repeat offender. But in the long run, we are talking about 6 games for a couple of stitches, versus dangerous hits with potential long term head trauma with lesser suspensions. Take the player out of the equation and just look at the specific incidents. All I know is the NHL, like the NFL, has set a really bad precedent for what they take seriously and punish guys for. We are already seeing lawsuits, and with the NHL's handling of dangerous headshots, they are paving the way for a massive lawsuit and it's their own fault for not policing it better. If it was my son, I'd gladly take a few stitches to his face instead of having his head run in to rock hard boards and glass any day.
