League’s Suspension Consistency

In last nights contest between the Minnesota Wild and the visiting team Pittsburgh Penguins, Pen’s Sergei Gonchar laid a questionably dirty and hgih hit on Wild winger Cal Clutterbuck.

The league this season is cutting down on head shots and recently displayed this by handing a suspension to Phoenix Coyote defenseman Ed Jovanovski for his elbow to New York Islanders John Tavares. The question becomes though, will the league suspend Gonchar?

The league has been under scrutiny for wanting to make the game a cleaner, safer game for the players, by removing dangerous plays. This year specifically by the means of removing head shots. Yet earlier in the season, when time to muscle up and stick to their guns, the league did not suspend Philadelphia Flyer’s Captain Mike Richards for a hit on Florida Panther’s star David Booth, leaving Booth on the IR to this day. So the question becomes, is the league playing favorites?

Recently stated, the league suspended defenseman Ed Jovanovski for an elbow to John Tavares’ head. Was this done because it was dangerous and shouldn’t be in the game? Was it done because it was blatantly obvious?  Or was it done because the person being hit was The John Tavares, the next greatest thing to hockey according to Canadian news for the past few years?

One would hope that that the league intends on removing dangerous plays, for the betterment of the players, but sometimes you do wonder if favorites are being played. Are you more likely to get a suspension if you hit a prominent figure in the NHL, or is the justice blind?

Underneath is the play where Gonchar took a run at Clutterbuck. You be the judge on a suspension or not.

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