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How to Fix NHL Suspensions

By Andreas Matsoukas

Jun 4, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; NHL commissioner Gary Bettman at a press conference with the Stanley Cup before game one of the 2014 Stanley Cup Final between the New York Rangers and the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 4, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; NHL commissioner Gary Bettman at a press conference with the Stanley Cup before game one of the 2014 Stanley Cup Final between the New York Rangers and the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /
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The NHL should reform how suspensions are handled.

After a relatively quiet start to the season, this week has been full of incidents that could have resulted in NHL suspensions.

Chris Kreider, John Moore and Eric Gryba all could have, and I would argue should have been suspended for their hits this week. In particular, I have a hard time understanding how Kreider wasn’t suspended for his violent hit on Jonas Brodin.

The questions have once again surfaced:

Why aren’t NHL suspensions more severe?
Why are two nearly identical incidents punished differently?
Why can’t the league get it right?

The solutions proposed by players, general managers, coaches and even media are as varied as the opinions of the people providing them.

Still, we have yet to find a system that protects the players from potentially life-altering, let alone career ending injuries while at the same time retains the toughness hockey fans would hate to see sucked from the game.

So what’s the optimal solution to make NHL suspensions more effective as a deterrent?

In order to answer that, we must first understand the problem. In that regard, there are a few important distinctions to make.

First, there are likely not more concussions or severe injuries occurring than say, 20 or 30 years ago. Rather, a better job is being done identifying and treating those injuries. No longer does a player “get his bell rung”. He is now diagnosed with a concussion.

Second, with the competitive balance so tight in today’s NHL, the “enforcers” that once policed the game are no longer a viable option. Teams simply can’t afford to have a roster spot taken up by a player who sees the ice less than 5-6 minutes per game.

And finally, the very idea that enforcers are the solution is an antiquated one. The reason hits like this one don’t stop, and perhaps are even on the rise, is simple: money.

I believe that the vast majority of NHL suspensions are not the result of a player trying to injure his opponent. Rather, it’s the result of either a hockey play gone awry, or a player simply doing what he has to. And that’s where the money plays a huge role.

For players who don’t have the luxury of securing a roster spot based on natural ability, they must fill a role. They must make themselves valuable to the coaching staff and the organization by any means they can. If it means using their body as a wrecking ball, so be it.

They have to be willing to hit harder, skate faster and work harder than the group of guys waiting to take that spot from them.

That’s a critical part of the equation, and why I think that hits in hockey today are more likely about job security and less about separating an opponent from the puck. And more violent.

Yes, players at the professional level must learn to protect themselves. But the hits we’re seeing today go far beyond that.

Whether you hit an unsuspecting opponent going 12 mph or 20 could make the difference between a bruised brain or a bruised ego. Both however would be hard enough to make that player think twice.

I believe players are no longer choosing to let up, because they can’t. If they do, there’s someone behind them on the depth chart who won’t.

This sort of mentality is part of the fabric of the NHL. The same macho attitude is what keeps, and some would say encourages, fighting in the game and visors out of it, and it’s rampant at every level of the league.

That’s why the solution resides outside the National Hockey League offices.

The fix for NHL suspensions

I never understood why former players, general managers or league executives are tasked with handing out NHL suspensions.

How will Chris Pronger's hire impact NHL suspensions?
Jun 30, 2013; Newark, NJ, USA; Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger (right) shakes hands with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman during the 2013 NHL Draft at the Prudential Center. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports /

Most will use the tired excuse of “they played the game, so they understand it better”. I think the fact that they were previously involved with the sport is the exact reason why NOT to hire them. They have an inherently biased view of what the offending player did, focusing too much on the result and slow motion replays than the dangerous nature of the play.

Why not focus on what could’ve been the result, rather than what was the result? Maybe the player who got hit got lucky? Maybe he braced himself at the last second? In any case, it doesn’t change that the offending player did something violent.
Why not hire someone with a little experience in justice instead of hockey to hand out NHL suspensions? A judge, or former police officer perhaps.

Someone who is willing to punish a player not because of the resulting injury or name on the back his jersey, but because the action he performed was reckless and endangered an opponent.

Would it work with a judge in the big chair? Perhaps, perhaps not.

All I know is that I’m tired of so many people labelling plays that should result in NHL suspensions as “hockey plays”.

I’m sick of the archaic idea that fighting is the way to curb these incidents.

And I refuse the notion that people with similar views want to rob the game of its toughness.

I’m ready for someone, anyone at the NHL to start thinking outside the box before one of our players loses his life on the ice.

I’m ready for NHL suspensions to stop being a joke and start protecting the players who make this game what it is.

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