14 years ago
Monday, June 1, 2009
NHL Double Standards: Part Two
This is absolutely ridiculous. The NHL rules state that if you get an instigator penalty in the last five minutes of a game, you are automatically suspended for the next game. Apparently there is some fine print that says "unless your one of Pittsburgh's stars". In game two of the Stanley Cup Finals, Evgeni Malkin started a fight with Henrik Zetterberg with about 15 seconds left in the game after Maxime Talbot took a vicious stab at Detroit goalie Chris Osgood. Malkin was given 5 for fighting, a 10 minute misconduct and a 2 minute instigator penalty. Minutes after the game was over, the NHL issued a statement saying that they weren't suspending Malkin for game 3. GROW A BACKBONE NHL. YOU CANNOT LET YOUR STARS RUN AROUND LIKE THEY ARE ABOVE THE RULES. It really sickens me to see the double standards that exist and really makes me want to stop watching hockey altogether. The more I see this, the less I feel that teams are treated fairly by the league brass.
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3 comments:
I was curious how the league was going to handle this, and they never fail to disappoint. When I saw that fight start, I was like, "Hey, it's the last minute, what are they gonna do about this?" Oh yeah, absolutely nothing. Frustrating...
I can't disagree with anything you said. The playoffs has been a craps shoot to determine if discipline will be doled out or not. The Discipline Czar is likely throwing darts and it really comes down to who gets suspended and who doesn't. I don't have a problem with not suspending a player in this situation if it is applied fairly. Don't make a rule in the game and then not apply it. This is along the same lines of shooting the puck over the boards in the defensive zone. "no penalty on Gonchar because we like him and he didn't mean to do it". I am sorry but this is a black and white rule. Betteman and the cronies can't justify the cheap shot tactics the Pens have displayed during the playoffs and not doled out penalties. Even Cooke doesn't have to sit.
I really can't describe my feelings about this. It's like a great injustice but I can't do anything about it.
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