After the NHL handed Philadelphia Flyers’ Jody Shelley a 10-game suspension for his hit on Toronto Maple Leafs’ Darryl Boyce on Tuesday night, I voiced my opinion on Hockeycentral @ Noon. In turn, Gary, a listener of the show, responded to my take on the incident via email.
“Nick, I can’t believe you don’t think Shelley’s hit on Boyce was a dirty hit. I think you’re sending an inappropriate message to our kids in minor hockey – too bad. I thought you would have stood against it,” Gary wrote.
So I decided to respond to him with the following:
“Hey Gary, I thought I was clear: it was a suspendable act and that I don’t condone direct hits to the numbers. I don’t share your view on hits being as black and white as you make it out to be.
I did want to leave listeners with the thought that it’s a fairly common hockey play that goes bad for a variety of reasons. I believe it’s possible to hit from behind without malicious intent. As a repeat offender, Shelley deserved a longer suspension for a dangerous play. I get it.
But I believe “dirty” is a guy who goes around like a predator, like Matt Cooke has done in the past. That was not Jody Shelley the other night. People like throwing the word “dirty” around far too easily in pro hockey. In a world of replays and super slow motion it’s easy to think otherwise. I hope that clarifies where I was coming from. Enjoy the hockey year. Nick.”
Despite a new NHL sheriff in Brendan Shanahan, I believe emails like Gary’s will still be common this hockey season. I hope people who are expecting these types of hits to eventually disappear aren’t too disappointed when it doesn’t happen despite the threat of lengthier suspensions.
Sorry to disappoint, but it isn’t going to happen. Not as long as guys continue to have the green light to generate that type of speed in such a confined area of space.
However, I do believe Shanahan’s vision of consistently educating players through his video messages. He does stand a chance of bringing the number of hits from behind down. But by how many remains to be seen.
Shanahan’s primary goal is to improve the safety of the players, but just remember this: the league pushes and markets how tough you need to play in the NHL, more so than the finesse of the game. The players constantly feed off that. While we all agree the game can be made safer to play, it will never be free of risk. And the league is so thankful for that.
After all, how many of you would still pay to watch it if it was?