Saturday, March 03, 2007
JANSSEN SUSPENDED FOR KABERLE HIT
The Devils' Cam Janssen gets three games for this late, and high, hit on Leafs d-man Tomas Kaberle.
Shorter version of Damien Cox's column today: We never learn.
What a week for the Leafs — only two out of a possible eight points and their best defenceman gets injured by a no-talent plug in the game they actually won.
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4 comments:
I don't get the suspension. Late hit to the head, injured elite-level player, no penalty. Sounds just like the Neil hit.
So why the three games? Is Campbell under pressure to "do something about all this"?
That's all I get out of it. If so, then it's a dumb call. Either both hits are suspendable (is that a word?) or neither is. I'm tired of Campbells' moving-target brand of NHL discipline.
In my opinion the Neil hit was worse because it was directly to the head. Janssen should have been penalized for boarding but he can't be blamed for Kaberle falling into the boards; it was just unfortunate. But yeah, neither one is a suspension or they both are. You can't really say that Kaberle is more important than a 30 goal scorer on a great hockey team.
Good points guys. If the Neil hit was worse, you could definitely argue (as Simmons did in today's Sun) that a suspension might have made Janssen think twice about throwing a late hit.
A top-2 defenceman is also more important than a 30-goal scorer.
Update - Campbell justified the suspension due to "the lateness of the hit".
Neil's hit on Drury was also late.
Therefore, he should have been suspended as well. I do not accept Campbell's explantion for the suspension - it's flimsy.
I believe he was under pressure to suspend Janssen, so he did it, and that's a terrible reason to do it. The total lack of consistency in his judgement is frustrating, and undermines the credibility of the league. And we wonder why the NHL isn't catching on with Americans...they probably compare the game with the WWF. Why wouldn't they? Macho newspaper posturing, arbitrary suspensions...polling suggests many Americans believe hockey fights aren't even real.
You can't blame Campbell, though, entirely. He doesn't do a thing without the say-so of the league owners. Until a player dies or is paralyzed from a hit like this, nothing will ever change.
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