Chris Simon is well on his way to his seventh suspension and the NHL needs to make this one permanent for the safety and livelihood of all NHLers.
Pretty clever those New York Islanders, rushing "troubled" forward Chris Simon off for "the help he needs" before the NHL was able to come down with what should have been a lifetime suspension.
Tough to banish a player from the game for next to forever when he's already laid the groundwork for some sort of illness, mental or otherwise.
"The Islanders are going to provide some time for Chris away from the team and give him the counseling he needs and the compassion he deserves," said team owner Charles Wang after their bad-boy forward's latest bout with reprehensible conduct. "When Chris is completely ready, he will be a member of our team again."
Message between the lines to NHL Vice President of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell: "Don't go overboard here Collie, our boy has a condition."
Now there's little chance that you missed it given the endless loop of replays provided by sports channels around the world including the hockey-disinterested ESPN in the United States, but the historic traditions of journalism maintain we fill in the facts here.
In a game Saturday with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Simon, who came to the game with a Bryan Marchment-like reputation for dirty play and a rap sheet seemingly on a par with the NFL's Adam "Pacman" Jones, knocked down Jarkko Ruutu mostly from behind, (with what appeared to be a leg whip no less). While Ruutu was down and surrounded by game officials the tape appears to show Simon sizing up the situation, then stomping on the unsuspecting Ruutu's foot with the blade of his skate. Having completed that seemingly premeditated and unconscionable act Simon casually steps into the Islanders bench area as if he had just come back from a walk in the park and was cleaning dirt off his boots before stepping over his threshold.
Like he did when he took a baseball-like swing to the face of New York Rangers forward Ryan Hollweg last season - an action that won him a 24-game suspension - Simon immediately was contrite and read a statement stating how sorry he was and how there was no excuse for his actions. He even went the extra mile in this one stating he recognized he needs assistance before returning to the game.
It was a nice and perhaps sincere gesture, and it's been that way after almost all of his previous incidents, the ones that brought him seven suspensions prior to whatever the NHL hands out for this one.
Predictably, everyone in the Islanders organization came to his defence including coach Ted Nolan who noted that it would be easy to give up on Simon now, but that it would be wrong. "I think one of the easiest things people do in life is, when there's a problem, get rid of the problem," Nolan said.
Nicely put and the Ted Nolan I know, admire and respect, wouldn't have it any other way. He stands by the people he believes in. It's a noble gesture and one we don't see often enough in pro sports.
But here's the problem: Who stands by the players not wearing an Islander uniform, the ones that have been suffering the consequences of Simon's actions time after time?
This is a real issue. Sure hockey is a tough game and sometimes emotions get out of hand but is that really the case with Simon? People have had their teeth knocked down their throat because of Simon and not within the rules of "The Code" but because he smashed their face in with his hockey stick. Simon has run people from behind, sometimes face first into the boards and for no good reason other than they were there. People have been slashed in the throat by Simon's stick. People have been elbowed in the head, crosschecked in the face and kneed in the groin by Chris Simon. One, Mike Grier, had to endure an ethnic slur because of Simon.
Who stands beside these men? Who acts on their behalf with regards to their rights to stay in the game and stay reasonably healthy and in possession of their faculties? At what point does someone stand up for them and the ones like them who literally put life and limb at risk whenever Simon has one of his "episodes"?
That's what the NHL is supposed to do and after seven suspendable incidents, the time to "remove the problem" trumps taking care of the "problem" child.
Chris Simon has had his chances, lots of them. He could have sought the help he supposedly needs numerous times before this. His time for rehabilitation hasn't come; it has come and gone.
It's fine that his teammates, his coach, his general manager and the Islanders team owner (a man by the way who certainly didn't stand by his one-time general manager, Neil Smith) stand beside Simon, but it's time that the NHL protects everyone else.
Simon needs to be gone.
Forever.