For any hockey fan, one of the biggest concerns this season would have to be injuries. Over the entire league there has been so many star players going out with injuries, and not only minor ones, concussions being one of the main contributors. One only has to look to the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers for proof - both Sidney Crosby who was out until December with a concussion, and Chris Pronger who went out with a concussion for the rest of this season. Giroux was also down for a period of time as well. We have to ask ourselves: are star players being targeted more simply because they're better than the rest?
I know this season that they have finally brought out an official system explaining why suspensions get made and clearly showing reasoning behind their decisions, but I feel this needed to be out much sooner. Why? Because today a lot of players don't have respect for one another. Sure, up front on tv in interviews they'll say nice things, but really most of them simply don't like the other guy, maybe even hate. This goes even further when players such as Crosby, Giroux, Ovechkin, Malkin, Stamkos, etc get all the attention and praise for their hockey skills, where-as typically the big D-man or power-foward gets left in the dust, unappreciated for his talents and skillset he brings to the team to make that big star a success. Long gone are the days of Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Gordie Howe (who yes I know didn't hesitate to drop the gloves), Maurice "Rocket" Richard, where other players would look at them and say "yes, he's great, he's the best, I want to be like him". Now-a-days a player is more likely to cheap shot them, trip them, elbow them in the back of the head, go in for the monster hit when a simple check would do.
Now I'm not saying this is league wide, it's confined to say 5-10% of players. But these few speak volumes over the ones who play the game as it's meant to be played. If you ask me, the solution to all this is simple - increase length of game-bans (Matt Cooke's 10 game ban last season should be considered an acceptable suspension for an offence that leaves another player injured for that long - or longer), and vastly increase player fines. Fines are a joke in the NHL when you consider how much the average player gets paid. It's pocket change. I know the league is willing to fine large (last year with the Islanders comes to mind - a $100k fine), and they should consider not making players immune to is. A $10,000 base fine would be sufficient to get most of the dirty players to stop and consider making that trip, that knee-to-knee, that check to the head.
These are just my thoughts on the subject, by no means should they all be considered fact as they are just my opinion - challenge them if you will. I'm going to leave it here as suddenly my inspiration for writing has dried up and when I try to force it out it generally winds up terrible. Until next time.
:) I helped make this moar accurate.
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