Raffi Torres Suspension: NHL Shouldn't Base Punishment on Severity of Injury

The NHL needs to come clean with what will render a suspension. Players and coaches need to know how long a suspension for a given infraction could last. Raffi Torres' hit on Marian Hossa, from an objective point of view, is something you see several times in every NHL game.

Remove the horrible aftermath—just for the sake of analyzing the hit.

Is it a penalty? Sure it is.

Torres clearly left his skates and launched himself into Hossa.

However, with that type of play occurring so often, is it right to levy a huge suspension on Torres because of how severe the injury to Hossa could be?

I say no.

I hope and pray with all my heart that Marian Hossa is in good health and can return to action in a timely manner, but his injury should have no bearing on the punishment.

For example, after Blackhawks rookie Andrew Shaw was suspended for his hit on Coyotes goalie Mike Smith, NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan said the following.

Per Sean Lahey of Yahoo! Sports:

"

"I don't feel that we are in the punishment business. I feel we are in the changing-player-behavior business. And you do that by getting someone's attention." 

"

You can't curb behavior by only penalizing the behavior when it renders dire results.

That said, it isn't right to suspend Torres for an extended period. In fact, you could make the case that there should be no suspension at all.

Players aren't normally suspended for this charging penalty if a player isn't hurt. For that reason, Torres shouldn't be, either.

The NHL is falling into the same conundrum that the NFL is in. Their product is a rough one that men play at their own risk. However, in an effort to become more commercially attractive, the league is issuing what I call "save face" punishments.

If leaving your feet and charging a player is going to render a suspension going forward—even if it doesn't cause an injury—that's fine.

However, heavy repercussions can't be reserved for dire results when the intent was the same.

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