NHL Suspensions: Don't Blame Refs for Increase of On-Ice Violence

Twitter exploded on Sunday after the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers made the NHL seem like the WWE.

There were times on Sunday when you wondered if the game would ever be completed or simply dissolve into an all-out scrum. Fights broke out, questionable hits were prevalent and even Penguins star Sidney Crosby dropped his gloves.

In response, fans cried out in anger, and for good reason. But blaming the refs for losing control of the game is missing the point.  

You see, head disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan is to blame for most of this chaos. He's the guy who has steadily become more lax since taking the job over a year ago. When you are basically giving players free rein to do as they wish without adequate consequence, in a playoff atmosphere, there is really nothing refs can do at that point.

In the first game of the series between the Detroit Red Wings and Nashville Predators, Nashville's Shea Weber got in a battle along the boards with Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg. He then proceeded to grab Zetterberg's head and smash it into the glass.

This kind of display should have surely warranted a suspension; instead, Shanahan slapped Weber with a $2,500 fine and explained that the punishment wasn't as severe because Zetterberg didn't get hurt. You may as well say you can hit your foes upside the head with your stick, as long as they don't get hurt.

There's no question that the Penguins-Flyers game on Sunday got out of hand, and the immediate scapegoats were the refs. But let's be honest, these teams are playing for the Stanley Cup, and if they're allowed to be excessively violent and get away with it, they will.

Hockey is popular in part because of its physical nature—there's no denying that. But when you give players complete freedom on the ice, it begins to resemble more of a street game than a professional league.

The only way for this to stop is for Shanahan to lay down the law. Unfortunately for hockey fans everywhere, he has proven incapable of doing that at the most important time of the season.