I just read that Downie is out next game too.
Yeah it was a bad elbow. Yeah he probably should have got a couple of games. I think Kunitz was let off because he's got a pretty clean record and it's the playoffs.
Though I agree that if the NHL is going to be serious about illegal hits, protecting the head, etc they need to be more consistent. Sure Matt Cooke getting suspended for a month sends a message, but it's no use if there is no consistency. Big examples being the Chara hit and the Bertuzzi hit against Chicago.EDIT: Add on teh Torres on Seabrook hit from the other night.
I haven't seen the Bertuzzi hit, buddy.
You know I disagree with you on some interpretations of the Chara hit. Don't really want to drag all of that back up, this series is tense enough already
I will say that with the Chara hit, and the Seabrook hit, the lack of punishment largely comes down to the specific language within the rules - for the most part.
In the Seabrook case, apparently there is some lenience in the rule book about shoulder checks to the head behind the net - because it is a high traffic area where heavy contact is to be expected.
So the league is basically saying protect yourself (I'm not saying that's right, I just remember hearing part of an interview last night, where a panel indicated that there is a healthy quotient of 'grey' language regarding that situation). Because his chest is facing the player straight on, it's also hard to argue that it's a blindside hit.
But the blindside, blatant elbow to the head, a la Cooke, Marchand, Heatley, Kunitz, is a situation that has continually popped up and that the league has created specific rules/language to address; it's something that I feel should, by now, be much easier to assess.
On the Kunitz hit, you can't go to the rule book and find any loopholes in the language, yet for some reason they've decided it's alright to redefine the precedent for supplemental discipline - in my opinion, because it's the playoffs.
For me, that's some sketchy practice.
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