Torres Gets 25 Games; What Do We Get?

After last Tuesday's flat out attack, Raffi Torres has been suspended 25 games by Brenden Shanahan. You should watch Shanahan's video; I think he makes the case, particularly in laying out Torres' prior headhunting this season. Indeed, I think it's clear that Torres just doesn't get it (and I'm not sure if 25 games off will change that).

So, Shanahan probably made the right call here. That, of course, doesn't mitigate all of the other missteps this post season. Nor does it mitigate the failure of the on-ice officials from Tuesday night's game. If anything, Shanahan's discipline and video makes it clear just how much the four officials fucked up.

Shanahan points out that Torres actually violated three different rules; apparently, all four officials missed all three of those violations. That boggles the mind; I saw Hossa get blown up, and I was watching from a treadmill at a gym, reliant on NBC's "follow the puck" camera work. I couldn't tell if there'd been a foul, but I wasn't on ice, and I'm not trained to spot those things. There's no excuse for the refs and linesmen.

One would think that those officials deserve some discipline, too. The NHL should make it clear that a failure to protect the players won't be tolerated from anyone. Indeed, I'd argue that it's more important for the refs, given their positions of authority and prestige in the NHL hierarchy.

This is the broader problem with Shanahan's "supplemental discipline" regime- it's taking responsibility and accountability away from the officials who are actually on the ice. Shanahan's videos are really all about defining which hits are acceptable and which aren't. That's actually great, but at some point, shouldn't that definition just be in the rule book? And shouldn't the on-ice officials be empowered to enforce those rules- or be held responsible if they don't?

Otherwise, I think you're creating some fucked up incentives for the players. If I'm some 4th line goon who only sees a few minutes of ice anyway, and my team has a decent PK, I might just take someone's head off in hopes of winning the game in front of me and getting lucky in front of the Shanhammer.

(Well, not ME, really, as I'm a pussy. But you know what I mean.)

That all being said, I am pleased with Torres' suspension, and I think it's important to say so. But I'm pretty sure my pleasure is cold comfort to Marian Hossa (And the if the 'Yotes are the ones dancing at the end of the night, for the Blackhawks, too). And I just can't get over the fact that it shouldn't have taken four days for Torres to see any discipline for an unquestionably dirty hit.

Raffi Torres: Professional Doucherocket

Raffi Torres' hit on Marian Hossa last night was simply unacceptable, and no words I could write here will fully convey the extent to which that is the case. It was a horrific hit, and it should trip all of Brenden Shanahan's wires- injury, leaving the feet, targeting the head, repeat offender. Topping all of that, Torres was not disciplined on the ice (indeed, the next penalty was ON the Blackhawks because they responded in kind) and all four officials claim they didn't see the hit (which, I have no reason to think they'd lie, but I was watching the game from a tradmill at my gym, and I saw the hit, even as the camera followed the puck. So maybe these four officials need new jobs).

Torres has been suspended indefinitely pending a hearing on Friday, and all of the chatter in the NHL culture is how many games he'll be suspended. The least ambitious pundits say 5; the most ambitious say he should be out for the rest of the playoffs. After the Weber, Carkner, and Shaw decisions, there's a palpable lack of confidence in Shanahan to make the right decision.

And I would argue that Shanahan's already made the wrong one.

Yesterday's suspension of Andrew Shaw was sold, at least in part, as "sending a message", about doing something that gets everyone's attention and makes them all understand in no uncertain terms that even questionable conduct will not be tolerated. Indeed, Shanahan has said before that his job is to mold behavior going forward, and if his office is about player safety, he's absolutely right. Now, we talked yesterday about how he's muddling his own message, but at pretty much the first opportunity after Shaw's suspension, Torres pulled this shit. The message has not been received. 

I understand the idea that Torres is an imperfect example; he's got no history as a hockey player, it's all just as a shitheel. Maybe he's unreachable, and the Shaw suspension was really supposed to tell rookies what was expected of them. But I'd argue that you can tell the Ryan Nugent-Hopkinses of the league to play the right well all you want; if the Torreses of the league are giving them concussions, you're still not cleaning up the game. In other words, any "message"- hell, any disciplinary system- that doesn't get through to guys Torres' is just not going to get the job done. And clearly, right now, no one's gotten through to them.

The Ridiculous Andrew Shaw Suspension

The NHL has suspended the Chicago Blackhawks' Andrew Shaw for three games for this...action? I hesitate to even call it a hit, even though the Phoenix Coyotes' Mike Smith did his best to make it look like the Kennedy Assassination. In complaining about this decision, I worry that I'm going to sound like a homer; lucky for me, it's already clear that Brenden Shanahan and the Office of Player Safety have been all over the place this playoff season.

In the Weber hit (as previously discussed), the absence of injury was a major factor. In this case, it's not. In the Carkner fight, Carkner's history of discipline was important; in the Weber hit, it wasn't. The Hagelin hit was worse than the Bitz hit because an elbow is worse than a shoulder, but Shaw shouldered Smith and got an equal fine. When goalies are involved, all the rules seem different, and in general, even though some of these things are explicitly covered by the NHL rule book with prescribed punishments, that apparently isn't enough.

Now, Shanahan himself has said that his job is about changing future behavior, and that necessarily requires making a few "statements" to get everyone's attention. I understand that. But the problems is, all of these statements, taken together, aren't giving anyone any guidance for their future behavior. Based on the above, it might actually be HARDER to know what a "clean" hit is than it was before. That's going to make it harder to protect the players, which is the whole point of Shanahan's office.

The worst part is that Shanahan was actually making really clear statements earlier this season. His "video press conferences" were incredibly useful; they explained what rule was implicated, what other factors were considered, what the player should have done differently, and why the punishment was what it was, all with helpful video breakdowns. It was a lot better than the NFL's whole "IT IS DECIDED" routine.

But now, there's no consistency, so there's no way of knowing ahead of time what behavior will and won't get punished. How is a player going to sort out all of the above in an action that lasts seconds at the most? Hell, at this point what's to stop him from hitting as viciously as he can in the hopes that he'll get Weber'ed after the fact? I don't know. Inconsistent punishment might as well be random punishment. And random punishment is not going to clean up the game or protect the players.