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29	Januar 2018

Weekly Reader: The NHL's Brad Marchand Problem

The hit to Pat Peake's throat with his stick in 1995 earned him four games. The slash to Jeremy Roenick in 1998 was four games. That cross-check to Brendan Morrow in 2002 was worth two games, and that time he kicked Ville Nieminen late in the 2003-04 season was worth only one. He had a couple of one-game suspensions in the 2007 playoffs -- an elbow to the head of Tomas Holmstrom and another to the head of Dean McAmmond. Then he got eight games in 2008 for a skate-stomp on Ryan Kesler.

It was a series of injurious, reckless plays that happened to be committed by a Hall of Fame defenseman who was one of the most vital players on each of his teams. There was no pattern, no correctable behavior. There was no particular lesson to Womens Tim Howard Jersey be learned for a player who would elbow a guy in the head one year and then skate-stomp an opponent in the next, other than trying convince a player whose effectiveness was tied to constantly toeing the edge of legality to change his stripes.
"Not every one of my suspensions was purposeful or intentional. A lot of that stuff happens spur of the moment in the middle of a game," said Pronger in 2014, about taking a gig with the Department of Player Safety. "Sometimes emotions get the best of you. Things happen."
Marchand was suspended on Wednesday for five games after concussing Marcus Johansson of the New Jersey Devils with a forearm to the head. It was the sixth time Marchand has been suspended in his nine-year NHL career, for a total of 19 games. He has also been fined three times, losing over $878,500 to supplemental discipline penalties.
Five games for a head shot for a guy on his sixth suspension seemed fairly minuscule when you look at other suspensions for repeat offenders. Radko Gudas, for example, went from a three-game suspension for a check to the head in 2015, to a six-game suspension for a boarding penalty that resulted in a concussion in 2016 and then a 10-game suspension for a slash to the neck of Mathieu Perreault in 2017. Raffi Torres was banned for two games in 2011, another two games and then a 25-game suspension in 2012, the rest of a playoff series in 2013 (six games total), and then 41 games in 2015 -- all for hits to the head.
But Marchand isn't Gudas, nor is he Torres. He isn't necessarily a headhunter by trade. Like Pronger, he "samples the menu." Unlike Pronger, his menu spans from when he was a bottom-six depth player through his emergence as a first-line scorer -- and All-Star -- with the Bruins.
Marchand was suspended two games in 2011 for elbowing, five games in 2012 for clipping, two games in 2015 for slew-footing, three games in 2015 for clipping and two games in 2017 for spearing before this latest incident. Some of these offenses became suspensions because of Marchand's reputation. Others were inflated because of it, as we saw in the Johansson incident.
The Department of http://www.officialmontrealcanadiens.com/Adidas-Brendan-Gallagher-Jersey Player Safety has always served three purposes: as a way to punish players whose illegal actions deserve supplemental discipline; as a means to change the behavior of players who are constantly running afoul of the NHL for particular plays; and to throw the book at those players once it's clear they refuse to change that behavior and are persistent offenders.
The Brad Marchand problem for the NHL is a unique one. He's a repeat offender, but his specific offenses are rarely repeated. The Johansson play was unlike anything he has done in the past six seasons. This isn't Torres, unable to deliver a check without bludgeoning a guy's brain. This is a dirty player whose actions are like a warped hockey version of the game "Operation," going after the knees one turn and the head the next.
One of the questions Brendan Shanahan used to struggle with as the head of the Department Player Safety was whether the department could hand out a two-game suspension to a player such as Matt Cooke after he had been http://www.officialauthenticbillsstore.com/womens_lesean_mccoy_jersey hit with, say, a 17-game ban. Once a player has been hit with a maximum sentence, can he then be charged with a petty crime? Can you go backward on a repeat offender, depending on the offense?
I think you can. That second ideal for the Department of Player Safety is, I think, the most important one: changing particular behavior for players, with a focus on hits the head, as opposed to simply ramping up for each subsequent infraction, regardless of the specifics.
If Marchand gives another opponent a forearm shiver to the skull within the next several months, he's gone for double digits. The Department of Player Safety weighs plays involving head injuries more heavily than anything else. (A massive lawsuit regarding concussions will do that to a league.) Five games is a clear indication that Marchand is on the radar for this kind of hit, and there's zero tolerance for another one.
As absurd as it sounds, suspension No. 7 might not be the massive, Torres-level everyone expects for the "Little Ball of Hate" -- especially now that Marchand is a top-line, 30-goal player. Dave Concepcion Authentic Jersey As we've seen this week with him, suspensions can't dim an All-Star. nike nfl jerseys 2016 cheap jerseys online cheap basketball jerseys cheap jerseys wholesale