Raffi Torres Hit on Marian Hossa: Why Lengthy Suspension Won't Stop Illegal Hits

In the wake of his illegal hit on Chicago Blackhawks forward Marian Hossa Tuesday night, Phoenix Coyotes forward Raffi Torres has been suspended indefinitely pending a hearing on Friday. Regardless of how long he is banned, though, the NHL needs to find alternate forms of punishment to curb such hits in the future.

There have been plenty of questionable hits in this year's playoffs in particular, but none has been worse than the one administered by Torres. The hit in question was delivered in the first period of Game 3, and it involved Torres leaping and hitting Hossa in the jaw with his shoulder in open ice after Hossa had already gotten rid of the puck.

The hit was illegal in every sense of the word, and it resulted in Hossa being taken off on a stretcher. Hossa was discharged from the hospital and luckily seems to have escaped serious injury, but there appears to be a decent chance that he won't play again in the postseason.

Whether Torres is suspended for a few games, for the remainder of the playoffs or into next season, though, it won't be enough to stop these types of hits from happening. In the grand scheme of things, as terrible as it may be to say, the Coyotes are the beneficiaries in this situation regardless of how long they are without Torres.

When he isn't being a clown, Torres is a solid player, as he has scored 20 goals in a season a couple times during his career and has had some playoff success as well. With that said, Hossa is the Blackhawks' leading scorer and a superstar-caliber player who is capable of taking over a game all by himself. That, quite frankly, is a trade off the Coyotes will take any day.

If teams can continue to take out the opposition's stars without much repercussion, then illegal hits aren't going to stop. Even if the NHL starts suspending players for large chunks of the season, it won't stop goons from going after the likes of Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin or Steven Stamkos. A predatory player is a predatory player, and they won't think twice.

There is no guarantee that it will work, but the only way to stop vicious and illegal hits is by hitting teams where it hurts, and that would be right in the wallet. Players who engage in illegal hits are pretty much only responsible for themselves, so since the team as a whole gets off scot-free, the offending player isn't really being held accountable.

Fining organizations for illegal hits would change that, however. No owner wants to have to dole large sums of money when they don't have to, so holding the franchise as a whole accountable for a player's on-ice actions could possibly keep things like this in check.

As soon as that type of directive is handed down, you had better believe that owners and general managers will call together team meetings in order to tell their players to be cognizant of how they're hitting. Provided the fines are significant, as in somewhere in the neighborhood of $500,000, then it's likely to change everything.

While there could be a concern that there will be less overall physicality with players worrying about incurring a fine for their respective teams, it doesn't have to be that way. It isn't difficult to throw good, clean checks, as players have done so for years upon years. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being physical, but it just has to be done the right way.

It doesn't seem like the NHL is going to become consistent with its punishments any time soon, so a major fine seems to be the only hope right now. The NHL continues to say how important it is to get rid of illegal hits, but nothing effective has been done to this point, so I wouldn't expect anything other than the status quo.