Sidney Crosby has had a rough week in the whole “player safety” department.
Let’s get one thing straight before we move forward with the discussion. No, there’s no way that the NHL will be levying a suspension on Sidney Crosby. It would take vehicular manslaughter via zamboni for the league to actually suspend him, and even then I think he would skate away with just a fine.
In that way, it’s a shame that Crosby always finds himself in the center of these raging debates. He is, and has been for some time, the best player in the NHL, yet he is one of the most polarizing figures in the sport.
The drama started on Tuesday night in a game against the Buffalo Sabres. With the Sabres setting up offensive pressure in the attacking zone less than five minutes into play, Ryan O’Reilly sets himself up in the slot in the event that a pass from behind the net can find its way to his stick. Crosby, deftly sneaking up behind O’Reilly, looks to be positioning himself to lift the opponent’s stick.
Crosby swipes his stick up and, well…let’s just say he missed the stick. Well, the one made Warrior anyway.
It’s hard to believe that a play like this had malicious intent behind it when it occurred so early in the game. These are not rival teams, these two players don’t have a history with each other, and did I mention that this was less than five minutes into the game?
Justifying this play is simple from Crosby’s standpoint. In an attempt to time his stick lift with the passing motion of the man behind the net, he flicked his stick and accidentally nailed him in the family jewels. It’s a bad play no matter how you spin it, but at least there’s a defense for it.
The problem is that Crosby seems to be looking at O’Reilly the entire time, so saying it was a blind stab is not necessarily accurate. Plus, just look at Crosby’s positioning in relation to O’Reilly’s. He is not even remotely lined up with O’Reilly’s stick. There were no last-minute jukes, no sudden movements that changed up the logistics of the stick lift. It’s just a cup check gone horribly, horribly wrong.
The whole thing happens in the blink of an eye, and the Penguins go on a 2-on-1 rush as soon as it happens. There’s no time for anyone on the ice to digest what happened. Play went on.
A few minutes later, Rasmus Ristolainen laid out Jake Guentzel with a nasty hit. Ristolainen was hit with a major penalty, a game misconduct, and a three-game suspension.
This is Ristolainen’s first supplemental discipline in his career. He didn’t throw an elbow, he didn’t leave his feet, he didn’t even take any strides into the hit. He turned his back to the play, and the ferocity of the hit drew blood and concussed Guentzel. Hence, the suspension.
Still, one has to wonder about how intent factors into a suspension. Ristolainen clearly does not mean to injure Guentzel, yet winds up doing some significant damage. Crosby seems to be fully aware that there is a danger of plucking O’Reilly’s plums and still follows through with the play. In this particular instance, the damage done after the fact outweighs the intent or even the appearance of the act.
Fine, so Crosby dodges a bullet here. But if damage done is the barometer for suspendible acts, then how does one explain the slash on Marc Methot?
Thursday night, the Penguins and Senators were in action in Ottawa. With just over five minutes remaining in the opening frame (again, relatively early in the game), Marc Methot carried the puck into the Pittsburgh zone. Crosby, giving chase, gave a solid whack to Methot’s hands.
At the moment of impact, you can hear Methot scream in pain. Amazingly, he still charges after Crosby and tries to push him around with just one hand. Upon removing his glove, it is revealed that he is missing the tip of his finger.
It’s a garden variety slash any other day, worthy of a minor penalty for sure. By the logic imparted on Rasmus Ristolainen’s hit, the damage done to Methot should be worthy of a suspension. Methot will be out for weeks, potentially missing the postseason. He plays most every game and eats 20 minutes a night. He is hardly considered expendable by Senators management.
Crosby did not receive so much as a minor penalty.
Penalizing spearing varies. Brad Marchand was penalized for giving a how-do-you-do to Jonathan Ericsson after getting tied up along the boards.
GIF: Brad Marchand sticks a Wings player in the nuts pic.twitter.com/8qjyY3KuS2
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) April 3, 2015
Meanwhile, Brandon Prust intentionally jangled Marchand’s jimmies in 2015 and was tossed from the game and hit with a $5,000 fine. Milan Lucic intentionally whacked Danny Dekeyser and was fined $5,000 as well. The bottom line is, Crosby should have been hit with something, be it a penalty or a fine. A fine is pocket change to Crosby and it would at least show the league is trying. The precedent is not necessarily a suspension, which is fine.
Reasoning for suspensions seems to vary. Obviously, analyzing these incidents on a case-by-case basis is imperative, but consistency seems to fall by the wayside. Intent obviously counts for something in this league, otherwise Nick Boynton would not have been suspended for a cartoony high-school throat-cut motion saying “you’re dead” after a fight. Did that motion do much damage? No, it looked like a move Biff would do in “Back to the Future.” But since the intent was clearly violent, he had to sit out a game.
But then if intent is the primary focus, what of clean plays that cause unintended harm? This is hockey, players will get injured. Ristolainen’s suspension is a joke. He does everything in his power to ensure that it is a clean hip check. It’s not even a full hip check, really, he merely turns his back and lets Guentzel do most of the damage to himself by running into a wall. This was not Scott Stevens laying out Paul Kariya. But because a player is injured, Ristolainen has to pay the price.
The Department of Player Safety has essentially ruled then that even though accidents will happen, they will not go unpunished.
If this is the case, then yes, Crosby’s slash on Methot deserves at least one game.
People ardently defend these actions as if the league is contemplating sitting him out seven games, or 10, or the remainder of the season. One game would have been more than enough of a message.
It wouldn’t harm the Penguins, it would send a painless message to the league’s best that there is no favoritism in the league, and it would satisfy bloodthirsty fans who want Crosby’s head on a pike.
It’s not just fans, either. Senators owner Eugene Melnyk and head coach Guy Boucher both lamented the ridiculousness of the lack of action against Crosby, and Sabres goaltender Robin Lehner outright said that if the jerseys were reversed, Ristolainen would not have gotten a three-game suspension.
Even the league has caught on that Crosby has a longer leash.
A simple, symbolic message would have sufficed. The simple fact is the league blew it. Not because Crosby is dirty, not even because he’s intentionally violent and must be stopped.
Simply because the NHL has set a double standard and betrayed its own logic in the name of protecting the league’s best player.
That’s not fair.
