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What Warrants a Suspension

By Mike Heika
November 4, 2009

James Wisniewski was shocked.

After the Anaheim Ducks defenseman knocked down Phoenix captain Shane Doan with what he felt was a clean hit by standing up in the neutral zone, the league decided to suspend him for two games for putting a forearm into the face of Doan.

Wisniewski believes he made a textbook hit with his shoulder. The only real problem, it seems, was that Doan was knocked loopy on the play.

“Obviously we have a different point of view than what the league took on it,” Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle told the Orange County Register. “We’re left with a little bit of a question mark why,”

Steve Ott believes he made a classic hip check on Blues defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo. Ott came cruising through the neutral zone bent over at the waist and put his hip in Colaiacovo’s thighs. Colaiacovo tried to jump up and was dumped on his head, suffering a head injury.

Ott received a two-game suspension for a ``low hit.’’ There was no explanation that it might have been late or that it came in a dangerous area. Ott was told that he is a repeat offender, and that also entered into the formula.

But the funny thing is that if a player was not injured, there would have been no suspension in either case -- and that is confusing in the NHL.

Supplementary discipline is not easy. Every hit is different. It could be a tick late, it could come from the wrong angle. The difference between a shoulder and an elbow can be inches. The person receiving the hit could even affect the impact with how he reacts to the hit.

And, of course, some people don’t get hurt, shake off the hit and move on.

So trying to suspend one hit and not the other is really a difficult situation. But the question comes up that maybe supplementary discipline isn’t doing what it’s designed to do -- which is to help prevent future illegal hits.

It certainly doesn’t make a point when Wisniewski walks away confused. He wasn’t penalized during the game for the hit. Neither was Ott for his hit. So what message is sent when the league decides that two minutes wasn’t deserved, but two games is?

“In my opinion, there’s nothing more I can do,” Wisniewski told reporters. “I made a hockey play. There’s a lot of opinions out there that say that’s a clean hit. And then to hear all four referees tell me it was a clean hit. They had a pretty good view of it too.’’

Of course, now that Wisniewski is a repeat offender, he will have to be looked at in a different light, which means his next suspension could be even more confusing. But, for players, there really is only one option.

``In these situations, it does you no good to lament their decision,’’ Carlyle said. ``They made it. We move on.’’

Some news and views from the West....

News: The NHL is given approval by bankruptcy court to buy the Coyotes and find a new owner.

Views: It’s a great first step, but you still have to find a group that is willing to lose money now for the hope that the franchise can turn into a profitable one in the future. That’s not easy these days when any group is going to have to find financing. The positive for any new ownership group is that the City of Glendale will work just about any deal it can right now. The arena is in the middle of a significant retail development, and any option is better than having the arena sit empty. So, for the sake of the taxpayers, Glendale needs to find a way to make this work. We’ll see what happens next.

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News: Reports say that Calgary Flames players received Swine Flu vaccines that could have gone to more deserving candidates.

Views: This appears to be on the provincial health services offices and not on the Flames. The team apparently asked Alberta Health Services for the shots and received them. There’s really not much the team can do, other than that. Most people aren’t going to turn down the vaccine if it is given to them, they just assume that everybody is getting the vaccine. We’ll see how it all comes out, but obviously somebody messed up somewhere.

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News: Detroit goalie Chris Osgood posts the 50th shutout of his career and draws within six wins of 400.

Views: It’s about time. Osgood has struggled throughout the young season, and is the key to the Red Wings make a run at the Stanley Cup. He doesn’t have to be shutout great, but he can’t be horrible, either. I loved the comment from Red Wings coach Mike Babcock after the win: ``We challenged our goaltender to be better, and it's good that he has been the last couple of games.’’

That’s the way they do things in Hockeytown.

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News: The Blues are 1-5-0 at home and starting to wonder if they can make the playoffs again this year.

Views: This is as shocking a turn as is the strong performances in Colorado and Los Angeles. The Blues showed last season they have incredible depth, and this year has seen the return to health of key players such as Paul Kariya and Erik Johnson. So what’s wrong? The Blues don’t know. But it’s clear they don’t have the hunger they did last year and they don’t have the chemistry they did last year.

You can’t blame Kariya or Johnson -- both are playing well -- but you can ponder that the rest of the team has taken its foot off the gas because it probably thought the returning players would take over.

"I think we've got to get back to what we were doing without them," Blues center Jay McClement told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I don't think we can expect to be better just because we've added those types of players. We still have to do all the things we had to do to be successful last year."

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News: The Vancouver Canucks allow just one goal in two games…but it’s not the work of captain Roberto Luongo. Nope, Andrew Raycroft has stepped in for the injured Luongo, and is in the process of helping save the Canucks season right now.

Views: Sometimes, things just don’t go a team’s way, and the Canucks have had all sorts of bad luck this year. Daniel Sedin has a broken foot. Luongo has a fractured rib. The Canucks were at .500 and sinking. But sometimes, unlikely heroes can help save a season.

Ty Conklin did it last year for the Red Wings. Maybe Raycroft will do it this season for the Canucks. Vancouver is a talented team. It has designs on going after the Stanley Cup. And it will be healthy eventually. If Raycroft, who won the Calder Trophy with Boston in 2004 and won 37 games with the Maple Leafs in 2006-07, can find his groove once again…well, who knows what can happen.

Mike Heika covers the Western Conference for versus.com and the NHL for The Dallas Morning News