Eye for an Eye: NHL Needs Harsher Suspensions

Picture this if you will:

Alexander Ovechkin is on a tear in his division, and his team has two regular season games left. The Capitals are playing another conference team that they will be meeting in the first round of the playoffs.

Ovechkin hops onto the ice in the third period with his team up by four goals.

Seconds later a late season call-up jumps onto the ice. We'll call this player "Meat-head."

The play begins and transitions into the Capital's defensive zone.

Ovechkin thunders into the corner to retrieve a puck. Meanwhile his right-side vision is partially screened by one of his own players.

Unknown to Ovechkin, "Meat-head" is flying in towards him at a wicked speed, using Alex's teammate as a screen.

Seconds later, Ovechkin is laying flat-out on the ice enjoying a dream about some Swedish babe he got lucky with during a canoe trip two summers ago.

Ten minutes later, he's startled awake by two loud clapping hands and the words "Alex, can you hear me?"

The next day the newspaper reads "Washington Tragedy, Ovechkin out for Playoffs."

Two days later another newspaper article reads "Meat-head Gets Five Game Suspension."

Sad thing is "Meat-head" is back playing on his AHL club.

This is the world that is reality in Gary Bettman's NHL.

What logic or fairness is there in a player getting a five game or even nine game suspension when another player is out for weeks, months or even life.

The time has come to bring some real accountability to "goonism" in the NHL.

Even if an injury is accidental, there still needs to be some fairness in regards to compensation to the team impacted by such a serious loss.

If a player gets a penalty for high sticking, regardless if it's intentional, then the same should hold true for hits causing injury.

If fairness is not introduced soon, we are going to lose one, maybe two great players to catastrophic injury any day now.

It's time Bettman stop listening to whining offenders and start respecting the injured players and their teams.

I'm all for a good mid-ice demolition of a player, however, if an illegal hit results in a player being taken out of the game for a significant period of time, then I say the offender should be off the ice for MINIMALLY the SAME AMOUNT OF TIME as the injured player.

If this is not instituted, then coaches and scouts are going to build goon programs designed to take out LEGITIMATE talent.

I'm starting to think that Bettman doesn't want fairness.

Angry fans = more press coverage for the NHL.