As if the Eastern Conference Finals needed any more spicing
up. After New York Ranger Chris Kreider’s inadvertent collision with Montreal
Canadiens goalie Carey Price ended with the star goalie being ruled out for the
rest of the season, Les Habitants surrendered a second straight game at home,
digging themselves a 0-2 hole behind rookie net-minder Dustin Tokarski.
Game Three at New York’s Madison Square Garden started with
a bang. Brandon Prust, formerly a fan favourite when he wore a Rangers jersey,
and now a Canadiens role player, became an instant enemy in the eyes of the
Garden faithful after a late hit on Rangers forward Derek Stepan, which left
Stepan, a key cog in the Rangers machine, motionless on the ice for a few very
scary minutes.
Replays showed that the puck was nowhere near Stepan when
Prust hit him high and late, and it later emerged that Stepan had sustained a
broken jaw. That means surgery, and it also means that Stepan will play no
further part in the series. Shockingly, the referees missed calling any penalty on the play.
As could be expected, on Prust’s very next shift – you knew
damn well it was coming – he was challenged by New York’s Derek Dorsett, and
the two dropped the gloves. In the middle of that fracas, Rangers enforcer
Daniel Carcillo somehow still got involved. Details of how and why are still a
little sketchy, but what happened after Dorsett and Prust were separated was
the real story.
Surprisingly, because no one had noticed anything untoward,
Carcillo was given a game misconduct, and would play no further part. Later,
replays (as well as eyewitness accounts from fans Tweeting inside the Garden)
showed that Carcillo made contact with an official, going so far as to land –
what looked like – a light sort of punch across the official’s chin.
Obviously, that’s a dumb move by Carcillo, and although it
happened in the heat of what was a very combustible moment, there’s nothing I
can write here to excuse such a thing. Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said that
Carcillo would deserve the punishment he got.
Not even for a brief second am I condoning what Carcillo
did, but I do have to scratch my head and wonder what on earth the people in
charge of discipline are doing. The day after the game, Carcillo was assessed a
ten-game penalty for his actions. They weren’t as bad as Prust’s, not in terms
of actual damage done, so you’d expect Prust to get at least that long, and
perhaps more, right? Wrong.
For the hit on Derek Stepan that put him out of the series –
and the Stanley Cup Final, should the Rangers progress – Brandon Prust was
slapped with a two-game suspension. If that isn’t exactly condoning a vicious,
late and overly-violent message, it’s certainly saying to guys out there that
you can get away with injuring another player and expect to sit for only a few
games.
It smacks of being a token punishment at best. Who knows?
Maybe the NHL has been listening to the Canadiens and the rabid press in
Canada. After all, Montreal coach Michael Therrien didn’t think there was
anything wrong with Prust’s hit. He thought it was “clean”. I’m sorry, was he
watching the same incident? If that’s his definition of a clean hit, then
Therrien needs to get his head checked and either his eyes checked or his
glasses cleaned.
We have the two contrasting penalties here, and an
eight-game divide. Carcillo’s bone-headed manhandling of an official, which
really wasn’t a giant thing, principle (which I understand) aside, and Prust’s
actions putting a player out of a series. This, ladies and gentlemen, is
bizarro world.
Those suspensions should be the other way around. That it’s
shaken out this way, that the NHL has decided that Carcillo’s actions were
eight games more vicious than Prust blatantly levelling Derek Stepan when the
puck was in another county, is laughable. Sure, if Carcillo had really whacked
the official, then it would make more sense. I get that the NHL are trying to
send a message here that officials can’t be touched, no matter the situation,
but this isn’t the time, not in the face of what Prust did.
There’s lots said about the entire Canadiens franchise (not
to mention certain sections of their fan base) and their sense of entitlement.
I don’t think there’s a more loathed franchise in the entire National Hockey
League, and there’s always been a perception – more a conspiracy theory, to be
honest, one that’s fuelled by social media and the wider community of anti-Canadiens
hockey bloggers – that the League favours Montreal in rulings and judgements.
With this decision, NHL powerbrokers in Toronto or New York
City, haven’t done a particularly good job of dispelling that theory. Carcillo’s
punishment laid to one side for the moment, I find it hard to believe that the
League can hand down only a two-game punishment for a hit that was obviously a
head-hunter.
Let’s not mince words here: Kreider running into Price was
an accident – he was slashed pretty good, which cannoned him into the Montreal
goalie – but Prust’s hit on Stepan wasn’t. He sits for his meagre punishment
now, safe in the knowledge that he’s taken out one of New York’s bigger
offensive threats. You can’t wrap that hit up in any other fashion than that.
It was late, it was high, it was dirty and it was damn sure meant to injure.
Well, it’s done it’s job.
Shame on the National Hockey League for not doing their job
in providing a deterrent to other players who might be thinking about doing the
same thing. If the Les Habitants come back to win the series and advance to the
Stanley Cup Final, the Prust-on-Stepan hit may well be the biggest talking
point from the East Finals.
No comments:
Post a Comment