HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING
Former Canuck knows all about being blindsided and says stiffer penalties are needed
Former Canuck Willie Mitchell has a unique view of the hits that are now common in the NHL playoffs.
Most everyone looks at a dangerous hit from behind, sees it over and over again on the highlight shows, registers mild disappointment at the practically meaningless one- game suspension, and can’t even summon the strength any more to complain.
Maybe that’s the idea. That we’ll all shut up eventually and let the boys play.
Willie Mitchell isn’t most everyone.
So while most of the witnesses to the Martin Hanzalon-Dustin Brown hit deflected questions Thursday morning, or gave careful answers, or just didn’t show up, the 35- yearold L. A. Kings defenceman whose career might have ended two years ago on a hit from behind by Evgeni Malkin was considerably more forthright.
Most of us are numb to the reckless stupidity of the hits, and to the failure of so many National Hockey League players to be scared straight by the weak supplemental discipline. Mitchell actually was numb, once, and he says it’s lucky for Hanzal that Dustin Brown isn’t. Permanently.
And as for the one- game suspension NHL vice- president of player safety Brendan Shanahan imposed on the 6- foot- 6, 236- pound Phoenix Coyotes centre?
“I’m not particularly happy about it,” Mitchell said, cornered by a couple of reporters in the Kings’ locker- room at the morning skate.
“You know, who am I? I’m just a player, but ... I know this stuff evolves over time, it gets better over time. But I’d like to see [ the suspension be] a little bit more, not just because we’re playing the Phoenix Coyotes right now, I just think messages need to be sent and it needs to be a little bit stiffer.
“Because what if Dustin Brown breaks his neck on that incident, as he very easily could have? A guy walks away with one game while the other guy is pushed away in a wheelchair? Is that what it’s going to take? I hope not.
“Brown’s in a very, very dangerous position, 4- 5 feet from the boards, his back to the player, lots of time [ for Hanzal] to ease up or just go in with the guy ... so no, I’m not a fan of it. I thought things had been going really well during the regular season, but in the playoffs it’s been a little different set of rules, and that’s kind of unfortunate because it’s not deterring the players enough, in my opinion.”
If Mitchell takes this stuff personally, he has every right. Pitched into the boards by Malkin on Jan. 16, 2010, he would miss the rest of the season and was not offered a new contract by the Canucks, who thought it was possible his career might be over. Malkin received no fine or suspension for the hit because it was not immediately evident that Mitchell was seriously injured.
Two years later, little has changed. The NHL is still punishing for the injury caused, not for the act itself.
“Unfortunately,” Mitchell said. “But I’ve said it from the start, if you rob a bank and it’s got $ 100 million in it, or it’s got five bucks in it, you’re still doing the time. That’s how it should be mandated. I don’t know all their criteria, Brendan and the rest of the gang, it’s not an easy job, I know that, too.
“But I think it almost needs to come to a system where it’s 5- 10- 20 [ game] format, where it takes emotion, takes everything out of the equation — it’s just what it is, and you live and die by the sword. That way there can be no complaining on either end.
“It’s something to be talked about this summer, I’m sure it’s going to come up in collective bargaining — it’s something that will need to be addressed.
“I think if you look around the league, the majority of players want to see stiffer suspensions, and bigger fines because it deters players that way.”
The Coyotes have had little to say about the suspension, and Kings coach Darryl Sutter, aware that there’s no need to stir the pot with his team up 2- 0 in the Western Conference final, was fairly circumspect when asked if a one- game ban was enough.
“Obviously that’s what the league viewed it as,” he said. “Just thankful Brownie didn’t get hurt.”
Brown was asked how sore he was Wednesday, and said: “I don’t know how to really answer that one. Sore.”
He said he managed to get his arms up just before his head hit the boards, “so that was probably the best possible scenario, considering the play.”
It was a fun- filled night in Phoenix for the Kings captain and best player of this postseason. In the second period, Coyotes goalie Mike Smith had used his goal stick to chop the back of Brown’s leg, which instantly went numb. Between periods, he said, his foot was still asleep.
Unbelievably, Brown was called for diving when he went down in a heap after the hack by Smith.
“I don’t really understand it. He came from up high [ with the slash]. But most refs have never been slashed in the back of the leg, so ... I didn’t talk to either ref, with all the stuff that was going on.”
His opinion of the one- game suspension for Hanzal?
“Um, I know these games are probably worth more. I thought he was going to get two, but it’s not an easy decision to make considering we’re in the Western finals. As a player, you don’t really worry about the length.
“It’s something the media likes talking about considering the state of the game right now.”
Yeah, we do. Guess we’re guilty on that count.