Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 2.14

www.afootinthecrease.com

Over the past week, their have been a couple of occurrences around the National Hockey League that have brought back that age old argument: Do star players get treated differently than everybody else when it comes to enforcing the rules. We, who associate ourselves with the sport of hockey, like to think our sport is cleaner, fairer, purer, the benchmark for which other professional sports should measure themselves. In some cases, yes this is true. It’s hard to argue hockey players, away from their roles as athletes, are among the finest people to make up the athlete body of any major professional sport. However when it comes to laying down the law, I’m starting to think hockey is no further ahead than any other sport.

Dwayne Roloson’s vicious upslash to the groin of a crease crasher was a suspendable offense regardless of the abuse he was taking in the crease prior to his outburst. It was indisputably an attempt to injure, and just like hitting from behind has no place in the game, neither do vicious upslashes to groins.

That brings us to Alexander Ovechkin. Nobody can question his passion for the game but last week when he shoved Daniel Briere head first into the side boards narrowly missing the bench door, his passion crossed the line. It was a move that should have cost him five games but just as Roloson escaped without suspension, so too did Ovechkin.

I hate pointing these instances out because both Roloson and Ovechkin are excellent ambassadors for the game of hockey. But I hate to think their role as ambassadors or more accurately as star players played an impact in the NHL’s decision to avoid suspending them. Suspend Ovechkin for 5 games and fans in Atlanta and Philadelphia who had tickets to Washington’s next two road game become very upset. Suspend Roloson and that could cost Edmonton some serious ground in the standings. You can be sure that if it was Jakub Klepis or Jussi Markkanen, suspensions who have been handed out. The NHL continues to turn a blind eye to the misdoings of its stars and that has got to stop. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.