No phone call for Nash

[hf101]

Nash appears as if he throws an elbow to the back of Kopecky's head. It is a play the NHL doesn't want made and yet it won't be punished by the NHL.

Why? Because Kopecky wasnt' injured? Nash is a star and has no record? Or?

[fishbulb]

He didn't even get a hearing for that!?!?.... That's messed up.

from behind/blindside?...check

direct contact to the head?...check

Uh ok.

[EDI-Flyer]

Per Puck Daddy, the reasoning for the non suspension...

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/brendan-shanahan-explains-why-rangers-rick-nash-wasn-220502216--nhl.html#more-53554

NHL Department of Player Safety chief Brendan Shanahan called Rick Nash of the New York Rangers after Nash's controversial hit on Tomas Kopecky on Tuesday night. “It was a rotten hit,” Shanahan said he told Nash. But not a suspension. "There are lots of hits that we don’t like," he said. “We don’t like this hit. It absolutely should have been a two [minute minor], and probably should have been a five,” said Shanahan, in a phone interview on Friday.

The no-suspension ruling from the NHL on the Nash hit was that it was an awkward, spinning collision between two players in which the significant majority of the contact from Nash landed not on Kopecky’s head, but the back of his shoulders.

“We don’t see this as being principal point of contact to the head. For a fact, we don’t see much contact to the head at all,” said Shanahan. “On the Florida feed, when you slow it down, you see Kopecky’s back right shoulder is the initial point of contact. If you slow it down even further, you see the back right shoulder and the nameplate aren’t just the initial point of contact, but the principal point of contact.”

Controversy raged over the hit because the aesthetics were damning for Nash. He left his skates to deliver a high check, and Kopecky’s helmet came crashing to the ice after it. On the latter point, Shanahan said it was a “whiplash effect” that caused Kopecky’s head to snap and helmet to fall.

As for Nash jumping into the hit, Shanahan said far too much attention is paid to that aspect of many checks. “The commentators have too much of a fascination with ‘did you leave his feet?’ We don’t suspend for leaving your feet. We suspend for leaving your feet and hitting a guy in the head violently,” he said. “It’s like a slashing minor, a slashing major and a slashing suspension. It’s the same thing as leaving your feet on a hit. When it rises to a suspension is when a player is in control of your hit; when we see a predatorial play and make significant contact with a player’s head.”

While they weren’t primary factors in the decision, Shanahan said that Nash’s clean record for supplemental discipline and the fact that Kopecky wasn’t injured “reinforced” the League’s decision that this wasn’t a suspendable offense. It wasn’t a hit the League felt should have been delivered, and told Nash as much. But the NHL felt there wasn’t enough contact with the head to warrant a suspension nor did it rise to the level of “predatory” hits that only make some contact with the head.

Thus, Rick Nash skates away from a potential suspension, as a time the New York Rangers couldn’t afford to lose him.

[EDI-Flyer]

“We don’t like this hit. It absolutely should have been a two [minute minor], and probably should have been a five,” said Shanahan

So what are you going to do about the referees who didn't call it on the ice then? Where is their feedback, are they going to sit for a game or two because of it?

Of course not, this is the NHL where refs are not accountable...

Edited March 22, 2013 by EDI-Flyer

[fishbulb]

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=418835

Lupul tweets that he wants an explanation about what a suspension is... Somehow I don't think the above article will make him feel any better.

[yave1964]

WTF?!? I LOVE hittin and bangin and old time hockey, my wife jokes that if they made a perfume named Kronwall that we would have ten kids, but cmon.

This was a cheap shot, from behind, to the back of the head, and if it did not deserve a meeting and/or a suspension then a lot of other guys were hosed as well. Reasons I feel that no suspension was forthcoming:

Nash is a superstar, in New York OR

Shanahan cut him a break because he used to play in the Red Wings division

No penalty called. No call from Shanahan. Absurd.

[jammer2]

simply outrageous.....no ryhme or reason.....you suck SHANNY!!!

[hf101]

Shanahan cut him a break because he used to play in the Red Wings division

yep, and Lupul was suspended 2 games because at one point he wore a O & B sweater.

[AlaskaFlyerFan]

As for Nash jumping into the hit, Shanahan said far too much attention is paid to that aspect of many checks. “The commentators have too much of a fascination with ‘did you leave his feet?’ We don’t suspend for leaving your feet. We suspend for leaving your feet and hitting a guy in the head violently,” he said. While they weren’t primary factors in the decision, Shanahan said that Nash’s clean record for supplemental discipline and the fact that Kopecky wasn’t injured “reinforced” the League’s decision that this wasn’t a suspendable offense. It wasn’t a hit the League felt should have been delivered, and told Nash as much. But the NHL felt there wasn’t enough contact with the head to warrant a suspension nor did it rise to the level of “predatory” hits that only make some contact with the head.

Really? I beg to differ.

[ruxpin]

Too many commentators focus on the feet leaving the ice because previously this WAS the criteria. The problem is the follow-the-bouncing-ball policy on these things which Shanny pukes out like a weakly Rorschach test.

The Nash thing was clearly suspension worthy and people have been suspended for exactly the same thing--and for far less--than this. The problem with flat out lying, as Shanny is doing, and with watering down or eliminating contributing factors by highlighting irrelevant incidentals is not just that Nash goes unpunished for clearly attempting to injure someone in an illegal way. The problem is that it murks the precedence waters for future incidents. I know using the precedence argument seems ironic given that Shanny never seems to follow precedence, but it will murk what teams, players, fans, and commentators get irritated with in the future and will add to further consternation and the idea that this league is the complete horrific menstrual accident that it is.

This hit should have warranted a suspension based on any and every criteria used under previous suspensions. The sad thing is that the only suspension or fine that will come out of it is probably to Lupul who correctly tweeted "WTF?" Shanny's failure to impose discipline on this one, compounded by the utterly idiotic excuses should cost him his job. It won't because he has an equally inept and mindless boss, but it should.

[B21]

Hmmm. Star player getting "preferential" treatment. How come Tortsie isn't whining to the media? Oh wait...nevermind.

[Phillygrump]

Really? I beg to differ.

His entire point was as long as Rinaldo's skates would have stayed on the ice its fine. You're right. Black and white how hypocritical Shanahan is.

Also, the Kronwall hit against hte Wild the other night wasn't reviewed either and he got 4 minutes for it. How can he keep escaping accountability?

I hate the league the way it is right now. I really do.

[doom88]

His entire point was as long as Rinaldo's skates would have stayed on the ice its fine. You're right. Black and white how hypocritical Shanahan is.

Also, the Kronwall hit against hte Wild the other night wasn't reviewed either and he got 4 minutes for it. How can he keep escaping accountability?

I hate the league the way it is right now. I really do.

Well with logic like "he has a clean history" absolving responsibility, how could he pick up offenses?