Last Thursday night, the Anaheim Ducks hosted the Chicago Blackhawks at Honda Center. The Ducks were looking for another win to stay atop the Pacific Division. The Blackhawks rested some keys players since they had locked up the first seed in the conference. A controversy would develop involving a play with Anaheim’s Nick Ritchie.
Early in the third period of the contest, Michal Rozsival delivered a cross-check to Corey Perry sending him to the ice on his stomach. While Perry laid there he was also high-sticked in the face. Nick Ritchie took exception and immediately confronted Rozsival. Ritchie dropped his gloves and delivered one punch to the right side of Rozsival’s face sending him down to the ice.
The penalties that resulted were two minutes to Rozsival for the cross-check and then a five-minute match penalty to Ritchie. The Blackhawks would end up with a three-minute power play and Ritchie was ejected from the game.
The Ducks would go on to win the game 4-0, but the real controversy came the day after the game. Am Freitag, 7. April, the NHL Player Safety Committee had a hearing regarding Ritchie’s punch and he was suspended two games as a result. He will miss the Ducks final home game against Los Angeles and the first game of the playoffs. Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, Ritchie will forfeit $4,967.59.
The issue is not the fact that Ritchie was suspended, but it’s the LENGTH of the suspension. Just over a week ago Sharks Micheal Haley received one game for punching Nashville Predators forward Calle Jarnkrok in the face in a similar incident. Why is one “sucker” punch worth one game and another two games?
Here is the league’s explanation:
Anaheim’s Nick Ritchie suspended two games for roughing Chicago’s Michal Rozsival. https://t.co/zKT4kcffRy
— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) April 7, 2017
Auch, this past week Boston’s Brad Marchand was suspended two games for spearing Tampa Bay’s Jake Dotchin. So if a player uses his hockey stick as a weapon or he punches an unsuspecting player, they are both worth two games of discipline? Some say well that’s comparing apples to oranges. Ja, that’s the point. A player using his stick to spear another opponent should be a much more severe punishment than throwing a punch. The two plays are different in severity and so should be the punishment.
The NHL Player Safety committee has continued to be a model of inconsistency. When similar plays don’t yield the same punishments, then they will be continuously scrutinized. Ducks fans are frustrated this week over the Ritchie suspension and also the lack of no call against Mark Giordano for his hit on Cam Fowler, but this is a problem any fan of any NHL team will gladly vent about.
What do you think about Ritchie’s suspension? And how about the NHL Player Safety as a whole?
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