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Was Alain Vigneault right about NHL's lack of punishment towards Wayne Simmonds?
Len Redkoles/Getty Images

Was Alain Vigneault right about NHL's lack of punishment towards Wayne Simmonds?

Hockey Twitter lit up early Monday morning thanks to an angry vent session from Alain Vigneault. At first, attention was drawn to his verbal swipe at the NHL and jab at Sidney Crosby. But his tongue-lashing also brought up a few questions as to how the league is handling certain player behavior — particularly that towards officials.

The New York Rangers coach was upset—and understandably so—after captain Ryan McDonagh sustained a concussion following a sucker punch to the head from Philadelphia Flyers winger Wayne Simmonds. Simmonds, who was responding to two penalties by McDonagh, received a match penalty, then a game misconduct after chucked his stick at an official before leaving the ice.



Vigneault’s Monday morning  tirade went after the NHL for not suspending Simmonds for hitting McDonagh, then for his actions towards the refs. As documented by Andrew Gross of Ranger Rants:
“What I didn’t expect was the reaction from the league. An All-Star player gets sucker-punched, goes down. I wonder if that’s (Sidney) Crosby, what happens? What are the consequences? And, on top of that, a player breaks his stick, throws it at the referees. In the rulebook, that’s automatic. It’s three games. Nothing happens. It’s not even on the sheet after the game. 
“And the referee came to me and I said, ‘Am I getting a power play here?’ and he said, ‘No, he’s getting a game misconduct for throwing his stick at us,’” Vigneault continued. “And it’s not on the sheet. I think maybe you guys (the media) should call the league and find out what happened because obviously we’re getting different answers.”

Of course the first thing that seemed to get pinpointed in Vigneault’s venom-filled vituperation is that he targeted Crosby, and how old and over-used that jab at the Penguins' captain is. (The discussion over what players appear to get preferential treatment in the league is a trip down the rabbit hole that requires its own article, or series thereof.) Then, attention turns to Simmonds—who was allowed to play the following day in the Flyers 3-2 loss to the Washington Capitals—and whether his actions and behavior warranted further discipline.

Perhaps more people should be asking: Why is the actions towards the refs not receiving some kind of disciplinary action? With the NHL rules stating that more action should have been taken in such an incident, why did it go unpunished?

The fact that Simmonds didn’t receive any additional punishment for chucking his stick is a bit of a head-scratcher. As Vigneault eluded to, and Yahoo! Sports later pointed out, NHL rule 40.4 stipulates that a player will automatically receive a suspension of no less than three games if he “by his actions, physically demeans an official or physically threatens an official” in a number of ways including “throwing a stick or any other piece of equipment at or in the direction of an official…”

Watch the replay of the incident, and it sure as heck looks like Simmonds’ action fits that bill.

It isn’t as if the NHL doesn’t take ill behavior towards its officials seriously. The league is currently gearing up for the appeal hearing for Calgary Flames’ defenseman Dennis Wideman, who was handed  a 20-game suspension for violently checking  a linesman from behind. (The issue is made extra messy due to Wideman sustaining a hit to the head just before the incident.) The league concluded that the hit violated Rule 40.2 which calls for a 20-game suspension if “any player deliberately strikes a official and causes injury” or uses force towards an official “with intent to injure.”

While Wideman’s hit and Simmonds' stick throw are not identical actions, they both fall under NHL Rule 40. Both players received game misconducts, as stipulated. But Simmonds received no further discipline, or the three-game suspension that the rules spell out.

These things considered, maybe there is something to Alain Vigneault’s angry media session Monday morning. While there isn’t much that can be done now about Wayne Simmonds’ hit to Ryan McDonagh’s skull, maybe he was right about how the actions towards the NHL officials was handled.

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