Friday, December 9, 2011

And Here We Thought It Was Different This Time

Blogger: Vance
Yesterday, while listening to terrestrial radio, the Who came on.  That's not extraordinary in any way shape or form, as listening to the Who and not being 63 makes me awesome.  No, it was that line in "Won't Get Fooled Again" that had me sit up and blurt out "God Damned Shanahan." You know the line "meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

God damned Shanahan indeed.  It takes a certain level of travesty to force me out of my literary hibernation, but watching Marc-Andre Bourdon skate 13:46 last night against the Penguins while we hear injury reports describing Nathan Gerbe as "dark" and "unclear", well, that's basically enough to do it.

Thanks to the ubiquitous HockeyFights.com; here's the video of the offending play.


Gerbe turns his back to the ice as he redirects the clear into the offensive zone; Bourdon puts his shoulder between the numbers.

So what's the big deal? Players stupidly turn their backs on the play all the time.  Well, the problem is consistency.

There's been a total of 7 boarding related suspensions in the league so far this season, the longest being Jody Shelley's 5 preseason + 5 regular season (http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=60&id=124282) suspension, the shortest Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond's 4 preseason + 1 regular season (http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=60&id=124228).  Regular season only suspensions have only been 2 or 3 games.

I would have to say the most similar precedent would be Kris Letang's 2 game suspension for boarding Alex Burmistrov, both chipping pucks out and away, both have their backs turned, and both "make no sudden movements immediately prior to or simultaneous with the check."

The only differences I see is Bourdon does drive through Gerbe nor does he have a prior history like Letang does.  Although, Gerbe is injured and out indefinitely.

So in Shanahan's world, that's the difference between a 2 minute boarding call (without a hearing) and a 2 night suspension.  But why? Where's the consistency, where's the transparency, why the difference?

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

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Fact: BanginPanger is not meant as an insult to the one and only Darren Pang, nor do I claim to be him. The views and opinions presented on BanginPanger are of my own, and no other namesake of the site, the NHL, Buffalo Sabres, Washington Capitals, or anyone else.