NHL Suspensions: Andrew Shaw's Suspension Proves NHL Is Too Lenient

When the NHL’s head of discipline Brendan Shanahan explained that Chicago Blackhawks forward Andrew Shaw was to be suspended three games for his blatant hit on Phoenix Coyotes goalie Mike Smith, I couldn’t believe my ears.

The league I have known and loved has completely lost touch. While it used to be fine to smash your opponents, in a time of concussion awareness, these actions are not acceptable.

Shaw is known to be an agitator with a history of looking for the big hits. With that considered, the path that the forward takes proves that the man was going out to hurt the goalie when he saw him with the puck.

Shanahan explains the NHL’s actions in this case and why they felt the Blackhawks forward should be suspended for three games:

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The contact Shaw makes with the Smith is not incidental. Rather, it is a forceful blow delivered by Shaw's shoulder to Smith's chin. Also, in our opinion, Shaw does not make a reasonable effort to avoid such contact.

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Basically, he tried to end the goalies season by knocking him unconscious with a charge and all the NHL can think about doing is suspending him for three games? That’s not fair at all.

It’s time for all the waffling on this subject to go away. The NHL has to take a chance this offseason and institute a new policy that says head shots are not allowing and will be heavily penalized. Exactly how the NFL has done it.

While the rule will get heavy backlash, just like it did in the NFL, the long-term solutions it will cause will outweigh the short-term frustrations. As more and more players go through full NHL careers with fewer concussions, the product will become more refined.

If the power was handed to me to change the culture of the NHL, I would suspend players like Shaw who have clearly done nothing to avoid the hit and everything to make it happen for the rest of the NHL playoffs.

In the regular season, start with first offense as 10-game suspension, second is 25 games and the third offense is a full season on the bench. I bet the head shots will decrease drastically with those punishments in place.

Someone has to take a stance; the NHL certainly won;t.

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