Broadly speaking, the NHL’s disciplinary standards have improved since a personnel shakeup that installed Brendan Shanahan as the top voice at the Department of Player Safety.
Explanatory videos are provided and the consistency has improved to the point where the ‘NHL Wheel of Justice’ is a joke people make and not an actual, plausible explanation of how suspensions are levied.
What hasn’t changed, despite the name, is that the chief focus of the department is a crime-and-punishment approach to NHL discipline. While “Player Safety” is a title that suggests a department with broad and multifaceted responsibilities, supplemental disciplinary action is what it is best known for.
Sometimes, that discipline is only loosely based around how badly an incident violates the rules.
That is a point made obvious by today’s two-game suspension of Toronto Maple Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf for a hit from behind on Boston Bruins rookie Kevan Miller.
Here’s the official explanation:
Let’s consider that judgme ...
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Article written by Jonathan Willis