Shout out to my brother Carl for coming up with this....I couldn't agree more.
The single most important factor to me in this is that there was an illegal hockey play, that resulted in an injury. The illegal play is not disputable - it was called "interference" on the ice, and we all know it was, including the NHL when they stated "I could not find any evidence to suggest that, beyond this being a correct call for interference, that Chara targeted the head of his opponent, left his feet or delivered the check in any other manner that could be deemed to be dangerous."
OK, so fine, you can't "prove" that he "targeted" the head (other than the fact that the video clearly shows his forearm/elbow smashing his head into the post, but, we can ignore that evidence for now), BUT, you can prove that an illegal play in hockey resulted in a serious injury to a player.
In the past, the NHL has ALWAYS, suspended someone (whether it is 1 game, or 10 games) if an illegal play results in an injury. You can take a look at the list of suspensions this year right here:
Scanning down that list shows that every suspension was linked to either "boarding", "elbowing" "slashing", "high-stick", "cross-check" etc. - all of which are illegal hockey plays by the rules, just like interference is!
I can agree with the logic that there may not have been intent or malice and that a simple "hockey play" resulted in an injury due to circumstance and the structure of the ice, but, I can't comprehend how the NHL can be completely and utterly inconsistent in its decisions to fine / suspend players. It should be SIMPLE logic.
1.) Was there an illegal hockey play, as stated in the rules?
2.) Was the illegal play called on the ice by the officials (i.e. was there a penalty)?
3.) Did the illegal play result in serious injury to a player?
If the answer to the above 3 questions is YES, then it should undoubtedly result in some sort of fine or suspension. In fact, even if the illegal play was not called on the ice by the officials ( for example in the case of Sidney Crosby's concussion) the NHL should have the authority and means to say that it was an illegal play, based on video review, because we all know the officials can't catch everything at every second, but the power of technology can.
My point is all of this being ==> Illegal Play + Injury = Automatic Suspension.
It is a simple formula, and a simple rule. Enough of this bullshit of prior history, intent, malice, targeting head or not. Its all BS and subjective in the eyes of people who clearly can not make a consistent and proper decision to keep the game of hockey respectable.
Here's a good analogy - if you are driving down the street and you see a yellow light and you speed up to make the light, knowing full well the light is yellow and where you are relative to the light, you are doing something illegal. It says so in the rules - you must slow down when seeing a yellow light, not speed up. If nothing bad happened when you went through that light you would most likely never get a fine/ticket etc. Now lets assume that this time, as you speed up , someone who is on the corner of the street waiting to cross it starts walking, thinking that you are going to slow down cause the light is yellow, and then you hit him and injure and or kill him. This exact same action (running the yellow light, an illegal "play") would most likely end up with you in jail or in court. Regardless of whether or not the guy "jumped" into the street or not, you were doing something illegal by running a yellow light and you ended up injuring or killing someone. This is the EXACT same thing that happened with Chara. He made an illegal move and injured someone. He should be held accountable.
I can go on, but I think I have made my point very clear.
I am sure we can all agree that whether or not it this specific situation should have been a suspension, the NHL needs to do SOMETHING. We are seeing serious head injuries more and more these days, and when it results in someone like the the best hockey player in the world, Sidney Crosby, being injured and out for perhaps the rest of the season and the culprit gets absolutely no repercussions, its BAD for the NHL and for hockey. Eventually it will be a league of big goons who can do whatever they want cause they know that the NHL has no ballsack to do anything about it.
All I know is that personally, the events that transpired on Tuesday night make me want to watch hockey less, make me think twice about the credibility of the NHL and its leaders and most of all, make me sad.
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