The actions of Shawn Thornton and James Neal do not have a place in the game of hockey at any level.
Both players deserve long suspensions and I hope they receive them.
I have no interest in the fact the Penguins played a really solid game against a great opponent while missing many key players , then blew the quality effort with two late 3rd period goals.
I am much more concerned about the bigger picture. The game of hockey moving forward has a big issue to tackle and I am not sure I trust the league to handle it appropriately.
The disrespectful play that Shawn Thornton and James Neal displayed this evening leads to very serious injuries. Both situations were COMPLETELY avoidable.
Comparing the incidents doesn’t do any good. They were both awful and they should both be looked at on an individual basis.
Here is the video:
I am going to start with the James Neal incident. Brad Marchand is in a vulnerable position on the ice when James Neal skates by. Neal intentionally moves his knee so that it makes contact to the head of Marchand. This is a blatant despicable head shot.
Brad Marchand and James Neal have a previous history. Neal was guilty of boarding Marchand in the Eastern Conference Finals last year. Marchand is a dirty player, but that has no bearing on the James Neal knee, or the James Neal boarding penalty.
Here is what Neal had to say about the incident:
"What do you want me to say? Like 'I'm trying to hit him [Marchand.]' I'm going by him I don't get out of the way like I said. I need to be more careful. I guess get my knee out of the way but I'm not trying to hit him in the head or injury him [Machand] or anything like that."
I don’t expect James Neal to say anything drastically different from that, but I hope he does not expect us to accept that excuse either. What he did was intentional and unacceptable.
Cameron Walsh of
Hockey Hurts has come up with a suspension system that I believe could solve a lot of the NHL’s disciplinary problems. His system is rubric based and punishes the act, not the result. Is it a perfect system? No, although I’m not sure a perfect system exists. Is it an infinitely better system than the NHL has in place right now? Most definitely.
The only way to have consistent discipline is to punish the actual act. It should not matter if a player is injured or not on the play.
When you take injury into consideration players will continue to take chances with risky play while hoping that the opponent does not get hurt. If players know that they will be punished severely regardless if the player gets hurt or not, that will serve as a true deterrent.
According to the Hockey Hurts suspension system, when you take James Neal’s past history into consideration, he deserves a 30 game suspension.
You can find the details of the suspension system
here .
As for the Shawn Thornton/Brooks Orpik incident, you have what I would amount to a criminal assault. This is the modern version of the Todd Bertuzzi incident. Dragging down an unsuspecting player and pummeling him in the head deserves an indefinite suspension.
The league has already made an announcement:
Here is what Thornton had to say about the incident:
Listen, I feel awful. It wasn’t my intention. I know Broosky, I’ve gotten to know him over the last 7 years here. I’ve texted him a couple of times. I definitely feel awful. It was not what I wanted to see or what anyone wanted to see.
Obviously, I made a mistake. I’m aware of it. I’ve been told that I’ll be having a hearing and it’s hard for me to say much more other than that was not my intention. I feel awful and felt sick all game, so much more other than that was not my intention.
I feel awful and felt sick all game, so Like I said, it’s hard for me to talk about right now. I can’t say I’m sorry enough. I’m sure I’ll be criticized for saying it, but it’s true. I, I just hope he’s doing alright, I heard that he’s conscious and talking, and I’m happy to hear that.”
Much like the James Neal comments, I don’t expect Thornton to say anything different than what he said. Also like the Neal comments, I don’t really care about what he has to say. Actions speak louder than words.
Where was “the code” during this gutless assault?
With the huge pending lawsuit that the NHL is already facing from ex players, how can they afford to not throw the book at Thornton and then some?
There will be many varying opinions of what each player should receive in the form of suspension/punishment, but the only thing that I am sure of is that the NHL will not handle both of these serious situations appropriately.
Both players need a serious timeout and a new standard needs to be set.
Update:
Phone hearing not good enough, despicable.
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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