Taking a step back from the irate nature of past editions of Dear NHL, This time, I'm praising them in another letter to the NHL that they will never see.
Dear NHL,
I refuse to have it said that I won't give credit where it's due. And thanks to a recent article on your website, you've once again managed to surprise me. This time it's in a good way.
With all the talk about the headshot controversy, and the ruling that Matt Cooke was unsuspended (thanks for that one, by the way), everyone was expecting there would be approximately 20% (the good 20%) of the players in your league would be maimed and/or killed by a headshot. While this helped make Halo and Unreal Tournament popular, I applaud you for deciding to separate yourself from first person shooting games.
Gotta say, the mid-season implementation was pretty balls to the wall, as well. Now you can chalk up mid season rule change right next to only Pro Sports league with a canceled season and putting hockey where the sun does shine.
While I'll miss having so many options for Campbell's Court, you did the right thing. And who knows, maybe I'll even find a better feature that will make people actually want to read this blog.
Yours truely,
Technically Hockey
Monday, March 29, 2010
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I'm glad that they were quick in the implementation of the rule and I see the necessity of it, but what I'm not fond of is that for the remainder of the season they have to review each violation on a case by cases basis, i.e. Matt Cooke getting off scott-free while others (and by others, I mean Ovechkin) get suspended for two games. Now don't get me wrong, as a Pens fan and an Ovechkin-hater, I have no problem with these decisions in theory; but at the end of the day it's a decision based on pure morals rather than team obsession.
ReplyDeleteTo the point: I want to see more straight forward rules and in game penalties that take immediate effect, then I'll be satisfied knowing our players are safe. And I'm sure that this will occur in new rule changes after Lord Stanley's Cup comes back home to the Burgh.
The reason Matt Cooke got off without a suspension was that Colin Campbell, the NHL punishment guy, cited Mike Richards all but killing David Booth with a similar head shot, but not getting a suspension. He wasn't involved in that decision, however, but felt the need to uphold it.
ReplyDeleteOvechkin got suspended because he has been getting away with this forever, and he finally caused serious injury to a big name player.
And yeah, there will probably be some pretty big changes this offseason as far as rules. They really need a no tolerance policy, though in some cases, it's hard to tell who's really at fault for getting hit in the head.