The spear or intentional up-slash to the groin of Hoglander required reveiw, a fine & a warning…if not a game as well. Left unaddressed, dirty plays just become more common place. And, apparently, these old-school & senior officiating crews have little or no standard common understanding of what constitutes an “unsportsmanlike” penalty these days.
Perhaps with the controversial appointments to the DPS, of former head-shot giving types themselves, like Pronger & Parros, more despicable & clearly cheating behaviours are getting a pass.
I know that progressive NHL teams focus more on the IIHF standards of role-modelling fair-play, speed & skill, but can find the play-offs to be an open-season on thuggery…making it more difficult to adjust. It also became much harder to counter the NHL’s public pronouncements of increasing player-safety when they decided to immortalize Mark Messier as the standard bearer of leadership with that now infamous ”Mark Messier Leadership Award” …for outstanding leadership & service, for the modern era. Say what???
^This head-shot artist being elevated to prominence anywhere other than in New York or Edmonton was hypocritical mixed-messaging! I can scarcely believe the other GMs…not just Jeremy Jacobs & his voting-block of crony owners,…would let such a thing happen!
Messier cannot be trusted to give proper leadership to Olympians, or to any other young player..,until he denounces the use of his blind-side elbows! He continues to damaged the integrity of the game by making coin on protective helmets…instead of campaigning to prevent the behaviour of deploying elbows or sticks as weapons against the unsuspecting heads or the bodies of opponents, with his testimony - NOT to do so. What about vigilante justice upon the ice? A fairly officiated sports shouldnt require it. But, what was fair in Messier’s world? He became an egregiously enabled star-player in NY!
It’s NOT those helmets he helped design that will spare players from concussions & brain damage… it’s the behaviour of those willing to show true leadership in preventing dangerous & disrespectful conduct upon the ice! that will make the NHL play-offs & hockey games something more akin to what the IIHF provides during the Olympics. …and not a questionable or inexplicable debaucle like the WWE.
The IIHF ALSO shines by properly & completely vetting its’ officiating crews - just sayin’!!