SHANABAN

The NHL’s new disciplinarian has no qualms handing out suspensions

Since the lost season in 2004-2005, the NHL has regained some momentum it had in the national sports consciousness. That year gave the league time to address some critical rule changes, which has resulted in a much more enjoyable and authentic brand of play. Add that with an influx of young talent, led by marketable stars such as Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin, and you have a winning recipe. However, this does not mean some of the age-old criticisms have gone away. In this era of ever-increasing knowledge about things like head injuries, the NHL has put forth a continual effort to regulate and hopefully curb behavior that can have disastrous consequences.

After 13 years as the head disciplinarian, Colin Campbell stepped down, in part because his son Gregory plays for the Boston Bruins, but more because the league really needed a fresh set of eyes. In a time of heightened scrutiny, Campbell found it difficult to maintain a sense of consistency when handing down suspensions and fines. Shanahan is that fresh set of eyes, and he also played in the post-lockout NHL (he retired as a player in 2009). Furthermore, Shanahan was no stranger to physical play, as he racked up 2,489 penalty minutes in 1,524 career games.

Like football, hockey is a physical sport where contact is not only allowed, but indeed a necessity to playing the game properly. Unlike football, you don’t skate around carrying the puck in your hands, but rather use a stick. Now, the stick is supposed to be an implement, but sometimes it is used as a weapon. And even more unlike football, fighting is also a critical part of the game. In these ways, many people view hockey as a violent sport. How it is any less violent than football, I’ve never been quite sure. Then again, I grew up playing and loving hockey. Likewise, it often seems the most vocal critics of hockey’s violence are those who are disconnected from the game, as in, they are and were never fans and/or never played the game.

Shanahan adminstering a Shanaban

In very similar ways, both the NFL and NHL have gone to increasing lengths to address head injuries. As we learn more about concussions, we’re able to see more ways that they can happen. Campbell’s inability to maintain consistency seemed to stem from his lack of feel for the speed of today’s game, however, Shanahan is someone who does have that feel. Part of the effort to have consistent rulings has been Shanahan’s openness and clear explanation of the play in question as it relates directly to the language of the rule. Instead of textual releases, Shanahan has put himself on video for each suspension he’s handed out thus far. These videos are directly accessible on NHL.com’s home page. Shanahan is also posting links to the videos on his Twitter page, which is likewise retweeted by the NHL’s Twitter feed.

These are exactly the type of steps the league should be taking not only to regulate illegal behavior on the ice, but also to address the game’s critics. But beyond these efforts, Brendan Shanahan has also been a swift and unforgiving executor of justice. He set the precedent early by handing out nine suspensions in the preseason alone, totaling 60 games (29 served in preseason, 31 served in the regular season). Of those preseason suspensions, six were for five more games. In 2010-2011, Colin Campbell handed out six such suspensions in the preseason, regular season, and playoffs combined. Add the 5 gamer Shanahan slapped on the Oilers Andy Sutton for elbowing on November 1^st and he’s topped Campbell’s mark from last year…and it’s only December 2^nd. You break the rules, you get a Shanaban. Simple as that.

And Shanaban’s are on a torrid pace. Last year, players served 112 regular season games at a rate of 16 games per month. Through two months of the season this year, Shanaban’s total 55 games, or a clip of 27.5 per month. That puts us on pace for suspensions of 192 regular season games. I’ve broken down some numbers over the past three years so we can marvel at Shanahan’s disciplinary prowess:

Year	Head/Late	Illegal Hit	Stick	Fight	Other	Total	Head%
09-10	30	45	6	10	0	86	35%
10-11	93	14	3	11	8	129	72%
11-12	40	33	2	9	0	84	48%

As you can see, suspensions this season have nearly matched the total from two years ago, in just two months. For clarification purposes, I went through all the suspensions from the past three seasons and attempted to identify all that were directly related to potential head injuries and separated the others into their respective categories. I believe the reason for the discrepancy between 2009-2010 and last season is due to the NHL’s effort to address the danger of head injuries. I also believe Campbell’s way of classifying these incidents led to complaints of inconsistency in his rulings, and the reason why 93 of 129 games served can be classified as relating to head injury. However, that doesn’t change the fact that the league is showing increasing efforts to address these plays. Broadly speaking, over the last three years 85% of games served to suspension have related to head injury and late/illegal hits.

Suspensions and fines for stick penalties are only for the worst cases, although Shanahan seems to be a little stricter in that area as well. He’s already handed out five fines totaling $10,000 for those infractions, in addition to a two game suspension to Minnesota’s Pierre-Marc Bouchard for a high-sticking incident. Fighting suspensions are pretty easy to classify and occur when players directly break a well-defined rule (such as leaving the bench to instigate a fight, as Anaheim’s Jean-Francois Jacques did in the preseason).

I applaud Shanahan for not having any qualms about handing out suspensions and increasing their severity based upon the circumstances of the play. I also applaud him for going on screen to give an explanation every time it happens. It’s already getting redundant, but it’s still the right move. It gives the media, fans, and players a direct explanation. Players should know what to expect if they make a dangerous hit or use their stick in a way other than what it’s intended to do. I hated him as a player (mostly because I hate the Red Wings) but as the head disciplinarian for the NHL, he’s doing a marvelous job. Handing out nearly 200 games in suspensions may alter the way the game is played somewhat, but it is a necessary step to protect players from disastrous, and potentially career-ending (Marc Savard) injuries. Hockey is a physical sport, but Shanahan and the NHL are showing that irrational and dangerous plays will not be tolerated.

Extra Tidbits

- I got message from my good friend Asher the other day that said “Bobby Valentine…Yikes.” This immediately prompted me to declare the over/under on games managed by Bobby Valentine for the Boston Red Sox is +/- 260 games. We both took the under. My prediction: He’ll take the 2012 team within striking distance of the wild card but ultimately fall short. This will probably be blamed on personnel (i.e. starting pitching) and injuries. But when the 2013 Red Sox are 50-50 through 100 games, he’ll get canned and go back to ESPN. Here’s to hoping I’m wrong.

- Through two months of the season, I’m doing better than I expected on my preseason NHL picks. In both conferences, I’m 3 for 5 (Boston, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Detroit, San Jose, Los Angeles). Two of the teams I’ve picked have fired their head coach already, though. But only one team I picked is worse than 11^th place right now. There’s a lot of hockey left and I could still end up looking dumb. Or really smart. Time will tell.

- Speaking of predictions, remember back when I said the 49ers would be 9-1 entering their Week 10 matchup with the Ravens? Yeah, that’s right. Oops, I also said the Lions would be 8-2 heading into their Week 10 game against Green Bay. But hey, 7-3 is only one game off.  I still like the Lions over the Bears in the NFC Wild Card now that Cutler is hurt and Caleb Hanie is, well, Caleb Hanie. But that greatly depends on Detroit beating the Saints this week, which is a stretch. I also claimed not to be surprised about the Bills because I expected them to be good, so…yeah, I’ve got to own up to that now. Sorry Timmy, sorry Lopez.

- So the NBA? Great! I’m going to miss reading 75 different versions of the same article on Grantland about the lockout. They did such a great job of exposing every flaw about the NBA that my interest in watching any games before the playoffs start is almost nil.