How to curb the cheap shots

[yave1964]

Abdelkader last night destroyed Lydman for no reason, he deserved the five minutes and the toss out, he cost his team (my team) a chance at victory, and deserved whatever suspension Shanahan lays on him. Horrible play.

My thought on how to curb these type of hits, the Abdelkader, Cooke, Torres rule if you will. Very simple: You cannot replace the player suspended on your roster. Period.

Instead of todays game of twelve forwards and six defensemen if a guy is suspended you cannot replace them, you play with 17 instead of 18 players. Punish the team as well as the player and see how quick it sorts itself out.

Anyone will tell you that I LOVE the physical part of the game. Good clean bone crushing hits are one of my favorite parts of the game. But what does it hurt the Red Wings to lose an Abdelkader for a couple of games in todays rules? They will plug in Bertuzzi and not miss a beat in all likelihood. Punish the team too and this crap will go away.

[flyerrod]

My thought on how to curb these type of hits, the Abdelkader, Cooke, Torres rule if you will. Very simple: You cannot replace the player suspended on your roster. Period.

I would make it as long as the recipient's inability to play the game....if it is as painfully obvious as the Abdelkader hit.

[hf101]

@yave1964

I was thinking earlier this morning sort of the same, there has to be a better way to penalize the team. I was thinking along the lines of a player on the the ice at the time of the suspendable hit has to be chosen to sit during the suspension.

[sarsippius]

@yave1964

Kinda like a red card in soccer, except in terms of games not minutes. Not a bad idea.

@flyerrod

the only problem I have with linking it to the time the injured player misses is that it brings us back to Shanny penalizing the injury, not the act.

[yave1964]

@yave1964

Kinda like a red card in soccer, except in terms of games not minutes. Not a bad idea.

@flyerrod

the only problem I have with linking it to the time the injured player misses is that it brings us back to Shanny penalizing the injury, not the act.

Another problem with punishing the injury, lets say Eric Karlsson runs over Raphael Diaz, drawing a suspension. Too much gray area, what would prevent Montreal from keeping Diaz out of game 7 to keep Karlsson on the sidelines? I really do like the idea of a team playing a roster position short for the length of the suspension, it hits the team as well as the individual.

[sarsippius]

Yup, too much room for manipulation by aggrieved team, especially where a star player injures a marginal player. And what do we do where a player misses 20 games due to injury....or has a career ended?

[AlaskaFlyerFan]

I think it will take 3 things:

1. Get rid of the instigator penalty.

2. Increase the number of games in the suspensions.

3. Fine the team of the player who comits the infraction.

One doesen't work without the other two.

[TedZep]

You cannot replace the player suspended on your roster. Period.

There would be greater imbalance than there already is, what with the bias Campbell/Shanahan/The Next Guy shows against certain clubs. As long as the suspensions and calls are as wildly inconsistent as they are now, I wouldn't want to punish the FANS because they got a call wrong.

[B21]

Abdelkader last night destroyed Lydman for no reason, he deserved the five minutes and the toss out, he cost his team (my team) a chance at victory, and deserved whatever suspension Shanahan lays on him. Horrible play.

My thought on how to curb these type of hits, the Abdelkader, Cooke, Torres rule if you will. Very simple: You cannot replace the player suspended on your roster. Period.

Instead of todays game of twelve forwards and six defensemen if a guy is suspended you cannot replace them, you play with 17 instead of 18 players. Punish the team as well as the player and see how quick it sorts itself out.

Anyone will tell you that I LOVE the physical part of the game. Good clean bone crushing hits are one of my favorite parts of the game. But what does it hurt the Red Wings to lose an Abdelkader for a couple of games in todays rules? They will plug in Bertuzzi and not miss a beat in all likelihood. Punish the team too and this crap will go away.

Longer suspensions which means a bigger hit in the offending player's pocket.

Worked for Cooke. Seems to have worked so far for Torres.

I think there will always be issues with the number of games a player is suspended. Even if they up the number of games we'll all just be arguing about a guy getting 5 instead of 10 like we argue 2 vs. 4 right now. But I think bigger numbers would = less incidents.

[TedZep]

Longer suspensions which means a bigger hit in the offending player's pocket.

But what about when the league obviously screws it up, like with Gryba? Shanahan's judgments are wildly inconsistent and to take food out of a hockey player's children's mouths (a little hyperbole anyone?) based on his delusions would be far from fair.

[B21]

But what about when the league obviously screws it up, like with Gryba? Shanahan's judgments are wildly inconsistent and to take food out of a hockey player's children's mouths (a little hyperbole anyone?) based on his delusions would be far from fair.

That's the downside to my idea. If you wrongly screw a guy, you really wrongly screw a guy.

[Clarke2Leach]

@TedZep, @B21: On the other hand, the possibility of making a team play with a smaller roster might actually make Shanahan think before he passes judgement. I'm so naïve....