Nyquist suspended six games for high stick (Post 139)

[HockeyinHD]

Every level of NHL officiating annoys me. On-ice consistency and accuracy is poor, and League Office level discipline is completely contextual, rendering it insipid.

If Nyquist seriously hurts the guy with that spear, the punishment is worse. If he whiffed on the spear, he's not punished at all. If he did something before, the punishment is worse.

Seriously, would it kill the NHL to stop punishing result and history and start punishing intent? What Nyquist did was every bit as dangerous as what McSorley did to Brashear.

I'd prefer the Wings win, I'm not going to cry over my beer if they lose, but if this ever becomes a team that allows horse bleep gutless crapola like that to happen more than once a millennium on their roster I'm not going to waste my time being embarrassed for what I see on the ice.

 

[Ezekial]

The DoPS's video talks about intent, then pawns it off with 'well he didn't do anything before'. It's amazing how juvenile they are about this. In the real world you don't usually get a 'well he didn't do this before' when you commit a major crime, especially one with intent to commit a crime. Should have been 10, easily. Could have been 20. But the NHL shows they don't care about safety.

Idk based on the precedent the league set with the Keith on Coyle penalty, they really had no basis to give him more.

It certainly looked terrible, but Spurgeon wasn't injured and like it or not history/contrite reaction will always factor in.

 

[Unfriendly Ghost]

It's too short, but oh well. 6 games should be enough to really sink the playoff dream.

 

[aar000n]

I want to hear the commissioner's explanation on why slew footing is only worth a fine. Both offenses could end a career. It seems as dangerous as this. Also repeat offender vs a first time offender? Why does the first time offender get this? The NHL always has been and always will be a joke on play dicipline.

 

[Bench]

6 games lines up with the league precedent.

It's also downy soft, as always. But whatever, it's how they want to do these things. It's always crazy to see the majority of NHL fans call for longer suspensions. It's like we want this to be taken more seriously than they do.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

A game too long given what the league has established. He doesn't deserve to get the same amount as Keith. Then again they shouldn't be this short to begin with either... What can you do. Hopefully Gus realizes this isn't his game and never tries something that foolish again.

 

[Eastopia]

Not a big deal but 2-5 would've been fair, 6 is too much. It was an accident and people here are really overreacting to it.

 

[Mijatovic]

Well without analysing it for every millisecond, it looked pretty clear cut intentional reactionary attack.

 

[Syckle78]

Not a big deal but 2-5 would've been fair, 6 is too much. It was an accident and people here are really overreacting to it.

It was in no way an accident.

 

[Dotter]

A game too long given what the league has established. He doesn't deserve to get the same amount as Keith. Then again they shouldn't be this short to begin with either... What can you do. Hopefully Gus realizes this isn't his game and never tries something that foolish again.

I don't know if this is true or not, maybe someone else can chime in... but I read on the forum he gets an extra game for not going to the in-person hearing?

That might be what happened.

 

[Bench]

It was in no way an accident.

He thought he saw a bee on Spurgeon's face!

The only "accident" part is if he intended to hit Spurgeon in the face. Did he intend to swing his stick at him? Oh god yes. Spurgeon, though, is only 5'9". And I think the listing on that is giving him an inch. Might have caught him higher than he wanted.

The only reasonable explanation is that he wanted to catch him around the chest. But even in our reasonable world, you have a guy who is retaliating by two handing his stick and creating a spearing motion... one of the worst plays in all of hockey.

 

[Eastopia]

He thought he saw a bee on Spurgeon's face!

The only "accident" part is if he intended to hit Spurgeon in the face.

Nyquist claims he didn't and the DoPS who talked to him seem to believe it. I do, too; certainly seems more reasonable to me than thinking that Nyquist suddenly grew two horns that no one had even seen coming before. I'm perfectly willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this.

If I thought that Nyquist was at no fault for what happened then I wouldn't be saying that he deserved to be suspended. Treating it as some McSorely tier goon move, however, isn't fair though.

 

[wingsnut19]

Even if you think it was an accident, 6 games isn't too much. It was still really reckless and to give it less would set an even worse precedent than what has been.

 

[Eastopia]

Even if you think it was an accident, 6 games isn't too much. It was still really reckless and to give it less would set an even worse precedent than what has been.

Well, if you believe that DoPS rulings carry precedent then the ruling on Keith should have set one for Nyquist's judgement, no? Considering Keith was a repeat offender and he only got 6, it's hard to argue that Nyquist deserved the same length, especially if the DoPS accepts that he didn't mean to hit Spurgeon in the face. You're kind of shooting yourself in the foot with that argument.

 

[Flowah]

Seriously, would it kill the NHL to stop punishing result and history and start punishing intent

They can and should consider both. If I intend to bomb a schoolbus but I don't, should I really be charged with however many counts of murder?

 

[Squirrel in the Hole]

Every level of NHL officiating annoys me. On-ice consistency and accuracy is poor, and League Office level discipline is completely contextual, rendering it insipid.

If Nyquist seriously hurts the guy with that spear, the punishment is worse. If he whiffed on the spear, he's not punished at all. If he did something before, the punishment is worse.

Seriously, would it kill the NHL to stop punishing result and history and start punishing intent? What Nyquist did was every bit as dangerous as what McSorley did to Brashear.

Could. Not. Agree. More. !!!

 

[InGusWeTrust]

160k into the player safety fund

 

[Brick Top]

I want to hear the commissioner's explanation on why slew footing is only worth a fine. Both offenses could end a career. It seems as dangerous as this. Also repeat offender vs a first time offender? Why does the first time offender get this? The NHL always has been and always will be a joke on play dicipline.

A clearly intentional spear in the face should trump a slew foot every time, regardless if it's a repeat slew foot offender. Stop trying to justify the Nyquist spear by clouding the issue at hand; we're talking apples and oranges here.

And DOPS clearly dropped the ball here and Gus got off easy. Too bad he's had a terrible season so far which tanks his trade value.

 

[InGusWeTrust]

A clearly intentional spear in the face should trump a slew foot every time, regardless if it's a repeat slew foot offender. Stop trying to justify the Nyquist spear by clouding the issue at hand; we're talking apples and oranges here.

And DOPS clearly dropped the ball here and Gus got off easy. Too bad he's had a terrible season so far which tanks his trade value.

Well yes but both can be labeled as "intent to injure" which both should result in long suspensions. But they set the precedence with Keith spears.

 

[wingsnut19]

Well, if you believe that DoPS rulings carry precedent then the ruling on Keith should have set one for Nyquist's judgement, no? Considering Keith was a repeat offender and he only got 6, it's hard to argue that Nyquist deserved the same length, especially if the DoPS accepts that he didn't mean to hit Spurgeon in the face. You're kind of shooting yourself in the foot with that argument.

Every judgement like this sets some kind of precedent. The one with Keith is that they don't hand out lengthy suspensions to star players that include playoff games.

 

[Brick Top]

Well, if you believe that DoPS rulings carry precedent then the ruling on Keith should have set one for Nyquist's judgement, no? Considering Keith was a repeat offender and he only got 6, it's hard to argue that Nyquist deserved the same length, especially if the DoPS accepts that he didn't mean to hit Spurgeon in the face. You're kind of shooting yourself in the foot with that argument.

Do we know for sure that the DoPS actually bought Nyquist's ridiculously lame-ass explanation that it was an accident? They may have gone with 6 games thinking that it was a clearly intentional, he's staring Spurgeon in the face as he spears him, act- that's how soft they seem to be on these issues.

And both the NHL and NBA seem to hold the player discipline notion that missing a playoff game is more meaningful in a suspension than in the regular season. So for Keith missing the 5 regular season games plus the one PO game may have equated to a 7-10 game regular season suspension had it happened in February of that season. Yeah, those games are more meaningful to the teams but that shouldn't get guys off the hook easier with less time served.

 

[Boomhower]

I think It's a fair suspension.
Still can't believe Nyquist did something like that.

 

[aar000n]

A clearly intentional spear in the face should trump a slew foot every time, regardless if it's a repeat slew foot offender. Stop trying to justify the Nyquist spear by clouding the issue at hand; we're talking apples and oranges here.

And DOPS clearly dropped the ball here and Gus got off easy. Too bad he's had a terrible season so far which tanks his trade value.

So you have a guy with a surgically repaired knee. a surgically repaired knee that has kept him out of the lineup. With a guy that's famous for his dirty cheap shots. On that play he had a really good chance of screwing Knonwall for life vs a one time first time accident.

 

[HockeyinHD]

They can and should consider both. If I intend to bomb a schoolbus but I don't, should I really be charged with however many counts of murder?

They'd call that attempted murder, and if the NHL started suspending guys for dirty bleep they tried and failed on we'd see a much more effective punishment system.

I'm talking about the serious infractions here, the Nyquist spears, the slews, the dangerous hits from behind, the stuff the NHL allegedly wants to stop. If they are serious about that, then the attempts should be treated as seriously as the 'successful' acts are.

The problems are A) the NHLPA would raise a stink about it because they are dumb and shortsighted and B) I wouldn't trust the League Office to not bleep it up anyway, given all of recorded NHL history as a guide.

 

[Brick Top]

So you have a guy with a surgically repaired knee. a surgically repaired knee that has kept him out of the lineup. With a guy that's famous for his dirty cheap shots. On that play he had a really good chance of screwing Knonwall for life vs a one time first time accident.

To my knowledge, Kronwall's left knee is the one previously surgically repaired and giving him problems while Marchand clipped his right leg... if Marchand was a WWE heel, he clearly targeted the wrong leg

And yeah, the one time first time "accident" was far worse IMO. Pretty sure a spear to the face could do just as much, if not more, permanent damage- think Hossa/Berard only with intent