NHL Safety: Philadelphia Flyers Should Be Ashamed

Pit a true hockey fan against a fan of any sport, and the hockey fan will always argue that the “greatest game on ice” is the toughest sport in the world.  Between shot blocking, body checking and fighting, it takes serious guts to play ice hockey at a professional level.

And no team has spent more money and energy embodying toughness than the Philadelphia Flyers. 

The franchise’s brutal reputation emerged at the same time the team was winning its only two Stanley Cups, with the Broad Street Bullies like Dave Schultz and Bobby Clarke in the 1970s.  These players and their teammates took toughness to a new level in all aspects of the game.

It should come as no surprise that the city of Philadelphia still values that certain edge to its hockey team even now, in 2011.  The role of Flyers’ team enforcer is nearly as coveted and prestigious as the team’s captain position.

However, in the 2011 NHL preseason, the Flyers have taken aggression too far.

The team’s incumbent enforcer, Jody Shelley, was suspended 10 games for a boarding penalty on Toronto’s Darryl Boyce during a preseason game last week.  While Shelley’s check itself was relatively tame, Boyce’s position in relation to the boards made it obvious that any hit from behind would be dangerous, and Shelley still chose to throw an unnecessary check at his opponent. 

Boyce’s teammate Jay Rosehill came to his rescue, but even the most active retribution is not compensation for the danger in which Boyce was placed.

It is not inconceivable for these types of boarding penalties to result in concussions and even affect careers.  While Shelley is Philadelphia’s tough guy, no one in the NHL should consider his actions “tough.”  Putting an opponent in such a precarious position is cheap, cowardly and an affront to the game.

As Shelley began to serve his 10-game suspension, speculation arose that the 35-year-old enforcer’s role would be stolen by a young ex-Blue Jacket named Tom Sestito, whose youth and massive size made him an obvious replacement for Shelley. 

In last night’s game against the New York Rangers, Sestito did more than prove to be Shelley’s replacement; he made it clear that he has the potential to be a carbon-copy of Jody Shelley.

Sestito took exception to a scrum in the corner around teammate Sean Couturier and delivered a check from behind to New York’s Andre Deveaux that easily could have injured the Bahamian forward.  Thankfully, Deveaux got to his feet shortly after the hit, but Sestito made it clear that Brendan Shanahan’s innovative videos explaining NHL suspensions weren’t getting the message across.

Sestito was given five minutes for boarding, five for fighting and a game misconduct.  His seemingly secure role replacing Shelley has quickly come into question, and his actions have made the Flyers look like the villains of the NHL under new disciplinarian Shanahan. 

In 2007, forwards Steve Downie and Jesse Boulerice made the Flyers the disdain of the NHL during the preseason and early regular reason respectively by obtaining 20- and 25-game suspensions for cheap shots.  While Downie’s head-shot was an open-ice hit and Boulerice’s cross-check was an obvious act of violence not condoned by any teammates or coaches, the parallels to this preseason’s boarding incidents is impossible to ignore.

The NHL has reached a stage where protecting the heads of players is a top priority, and rightfully so.  The league is finally becoming a leader in taking head injuries seriously, and Shanahan has done the right thing by redefining protocol on certain kinds of checks and handing out a suspension to Shelley for his hit.

Unfortunately, hockey’s toughest franchise is once again its most despised, and even the most die-hard Philadelphia fan is disgusted by the fact that the NHL has to closely watch the Flyers this season to made sure every check doesn’t come with a helping of “intent to injure.”

Sestito will be given a suspension similar to Shelley’s, and coach Peter Laviolette will be assigned the task of teaching his players how to play tough-as-nails hockey without being dirty. 

The Flyers’ franchise is above the antics of these two loose cannons, and the tough guys on this team had better learn to play their game without putting the opponent in danger.