It’s tough to upstage the New Orleans Saints’ bounty scandal, which has rocked the NFL and prompted a possible congressional hearing, but the NHL’s Stanley Cup playoffs may have done it. Concussions were a main topic even before the postseason started considering the number of players coming back from head injuries, the most notable being Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and Washington’s Nicklas Backstrom.
As a result, you would have thought the tone the league wanted to set would be one of caution, that officials would be told to watch for any questionable acts of violence or aggression.
Then Nashville defenseman Shea Weber slammed Detroit forward Henrik Zetterberg’s head into the glass in Game 1 of that series and received no suspension and just a $2,500 fine.
After that, the playoffs turned into a battle royal, culminating in the brutal hit Phoenix’s Raffi Torres put on Chicago’s Marian Hossa on Tuesday night. Hossa left unconscious on a stretcher and was taken to the hospital.
“Nobody wants to see that,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told the Chicago Tribune.
That kind of brilliance might have been worth sharing before the playoffs began, especially with players like Crosby and Backstrom coming off concussions that took away pieces of their careers.
In a roundabout way, Backstrom will miss Thursday night’s Game 4 against the Boston Bruins at Verizon Center as a result. He was suspended for the game for cross-checking Bruins forward Rich Peverley at the end of Monday night’s 4-3 loss in Game 3.
When it happened, officials called it a match penalty, determining there was an intent to injure on the play. NHL sheriff Brendan Shanahan upheld the one-game suspension that comes with the call.
Shanahan called Backstrom’s play “excessive and reckless,” but he might have added human as well. It has been apparent the Bruins are looking to ring Backstrom’s bell and bring back the fogginess from the concussion he suffered earlier this season.
“He’s got to protect himself,” Caps coach Dale Hunter said. “If you get a second concussion, you’re out a long time. … He just doesn’t cross-check somebody in the face. He’s not like that.”
So now you have violence born out of fear of violence seemingly sanctioned by the league.
The Caps issued a statement in response to Shanahan upholding the one-game suspension: “We disagree with the NHL’s decision to suspend Nicklas Backstrom. This has been a competitive and physical series, and we do not understand why a suspension was imposed in this case while other incidents in this series have not been reviewed.”
It’s called panic justice, born too late for these playoffs.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
