NHL Dept. of Player Safety inconsistent with discipline?
After handing down one of the longest suspensions in league history, it looked as though the NHL's Department of Player Safety was really throwing down the hammer when comes to late hits and checks to the head.
Just two days into the season, this appears to not be the case, as a handful of questionable hits have already gone without suspension.
A few eyebrows were raised at the consistency of the NHL's Department of Player Safety in the first period of the game between San Jose Sharks and LA Kings, when Kings' center Dustin Brown head-butted San Jose's Logan Couture in the face.
This isn't the first time that Brown has made a questionable and dangerous hit on a Sharks player, yet the NHL didn't not hand down any disciplinary action. It's salt in an open wound for San Jose, still reeling from the recent news of Raffi Torres' 41-game suspension.
Later on in the same game, Couture took a nasty blow from Milan Lucic. Lucic later told Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times that if his plan had been to hurt Couture, "I would have hurt him."
He also had plenty to say about Couture's commentary on the matter.
Lucic received a match penalty for the hit, but no further discipline from the league.
Sure after that game, you could chalk it up to the fact that the Sharks and Kings really don't like each other and their contests tend to be extra physical.
That is, until Thursday's crop of season-openers in which Winnipeg Jet Alexander Burmistrov's elbow made high contact with Patric Bergeron's head. Not only was the hit late, but on a player who already has a history with concussions.
Burmistrov also will reportedly not receive further disciplinary action from the Player Safety Department.
To call this unsettling is a bit of an understatement. The league's knowledge of concussions and their effects has grown over the years, and teams go to great lengths to make sure that their players are healthy before hitting the ice. But that doesn't seem to do much good if some head shots are receiving serious suspensions, and others are being dismissed.
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