| NHL - Hockey Central |
| Sending A Message Has No Place in “New” NHL |
| by Gabriel Kwok |
| One of the new rules in the NHL this year involves a very old practice... |
that of “sending a message” at the end of a game, usually seemingly meaningless, often with the winning result well-in-hand.
This season, in the last two minutes of a contest, if a coach obviously sends a player out, in the referees’ estimation—usually an enforcer-type or “goon”—to purposefully get into a scrap with an opponent, to “send a message”, there will be consequence. The coach can be fined $10,000 and the player sent out to start something can be given a game misconduct and a match penalty (can’t play the next game). The incident will also be reviewed by the league for possible suspension of the instigating player.
This happened recently with the Senators and Kings. I watched the game and was glad to see that rule was put in place, and then enforced. To me “sending a message” is too old-school, and street, and almost “playground” to have a place in the “new” NHL.
It’s especially pointless and stupid when practiced against a team you rarely play! This isn’t the Original Six! You guys don’t see the same ugly faces you hate week in and week out!
And it’s really an almost melodramatic ploy, especially when it’s pretty much “pre-meditated”, versus some of the heat-of-the-moment mayhem that happens between testosterone and adrenaline-fueled guys playing a high-speed, heavy-contact sport in an enclosed space. That’s why one-on-one, square-off fighting still belongs in the game.
So the Ottawa Senators’ D Zdeno Chara gets a suspension, and his coach, Bryan Murray, gets the big fine. One problem: not a big enough suspension nor fine. This idiocy should cost these guys and teams more, so that the NHL shows that the league management has the spine to stand behind their own method of “sending a message”. |
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