Doan Does the Trendy Thing and Lays out Sexton

"Wow, so this is what it's like to be on the receiving end. Not so sweet."

The saying is “Another Day, Another Dollar”, but, seeing as NHL salaries have skyrocketed in the recent past, maybe that’s not so apt an expression... at least as it would apply to professional athletes. In fact, even taking into account the $2,500 fine imposed on Ottawa Senator Nick Foligno, I would hazard a guess that he’s doing quite alright. So, if we’re looking for a true expression of the times, how about this: “Another Day, Another Dirty Hit”.

Sure enough, only two days after Foligno got fined on Friday for his hit on Carolina Hurricane Patrick Dwyer, Anaheim Duck Dan Sexton got blind-sided by Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan. The hit was to the head, it was late, it was illegal. Case open and shut. Or at least it should be.

I’m not naive enough to think that if the NHL would have suspended Foligno on Friday instead of just taking away his lunch money that Doan wouldn’t have hit Sexton. I apparently was born recently enough, however, to think that if the NHL had got it right with Foligno, we wouldn’t be having this one-sided conversation right now because the right precedent would have been set and everyone would know what was coming.

Unfortunately, because the league decided that illegal hits to the head are the less-expensive NHL equivalent to pre-game tweets in the NFL, Doan can now argue that he should be fined as well because he too has never been suspended. Maybe he can tweet it out and see what the league does in response. I’m guessing league senior vice-president Colin Campbell is writing the strongly worded letter as we speak.

Well, it would seem we’ve run into a classic catch-22, where a player can never get suspended because he has never been suspended. It’s a shame this thought process was just in its infancy way back when Steve Downie gave Dean McAmmond a love tap behind the Ottawa Senators’ net just a few short seasons ago. If only he had the good sense to argue that he had never been suspended by the league either!

Another illogical argument would be that because neither Dwyer nor Sexton were injured neither one of the perpetrators should have been suspended. While you can’t penalize a player based on his intent in general (you can’t penalize someone for missing a flying elbow if it lands 10 feet wide, as entertaining as it would be to watch), you can for deliberately trying to injure an opponent. Injury a result of someone’s actions or not, they need to be made to face the consequences, even if those consequences are becoming increasingly laughably lenient as time goes by.

Really, forget the players. It’s time for the league to take a long hard look at itself in the mirror - maybe not Gary Bettman; we don’t want him to mistake himself for a troll and get frightened – and ask itself if it wants to sell a product that consists of second-rate AHLers scoring garbage goals because all the actual talent is in the infirmary ward.

Now, Doan should get suspended, but, again, I thought Foligno should have gotten 10 games. Taking into account the deflationary phenomenon on lengths of suspensions that is Mr. Campbell, Doan will likely get two games. If he doesn’t, you can take one of two things to the bank:

1)      The NHL brass has taken numerous illegal checks to the head itself recently.

2)      The NHL just doesn’t care.

Considering it’s likely been years since anyone of any importance has played full-contact, competitive hockey, I would say number two is the best bet. But we will wait and see. It’s sad when the league’s response to the hits and not the hits themselves are the most shocking part of the sport. In this case, I would be truly shocked if the league did the right thing.

Foligno Should Be Looking Over His Shoulder with NHL Poised to Come Down Hard on Sen

Talk about a non-SENSical situation. Now that the bad pun is out of the way and the situation has been sufficiently made light of, it's time to get serious, which, in all honesty does not add any sizeable degree of logic to Ottawa Senator Nick Foligno's blind-side hit on Carolina Hurricane Patrick Dwyer on Thursday night.

It's abundantly clear that Foligno is not a dirty player... a fringe second-liner who may likely never pan out as the offensive threat he was envisioned to be when drafted in the first round of 2006, sure. But dirty? No way. And it's not as if Dwyer is the type of offensive threat or hated pest that would make for an effective target of such a dirty hit. In a lot of ways, it's easy to believe that both Dwyer and Foligno were victims of circumstance, with Foligno caught in a situation where he had to make a choice between making a hit or getting grief on the bench and he just didn't expect to deliver a head shot. But a head shot is what it was... even if some camera angles aren't exactly the most revealing as to its true nature.

Probably the best point made came from TSN's Craig MacTavish, of Harvey the Hound tongue-pulling-out fame. On Thursday night's telecast, he said (and I am paraphrasing here) that if it comes to a point where you have to ask yourself repeatedly if it was a head shot or not, it's most likely a head shot. As such, the NHL has a golden opportunity to set a nasty precedent and curtail these blind-side hits before an even larger epidemic befalls the league. Like the first snowflake of winter, these things have a tendency to snowball before you know it and the league can save itself a lot of criticism and headaches by getting it right this time. A 10-game suspension is strict, but justified in this context.

Rule 48 of the league rulebook states that an illegal check to the head is characterized by "a lateral or blind side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or the principle point of contact..." Foligno may not have meant to hit Dwyer in the head, but it did happen, making it the principle point of contact. Supplementary discipline is thus required, especially taking into account the fact that these incidents have become this year's Edmonton Oilers of hits... the flavour of the week if you will.

No, Foligno is not a repeat offender, but neither was Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson when he got a two-game ban for his hit from behind on Buffalo Sabre Jason Pominville. All things taken into account, the NHL would be justified in coming down harder on Foligno for the simple reason that they have a chance to nip this thing right in the bud right now, by making an example out of Foligno.

Hits from behind have gotten to the point where they are byproducts of an even larger problem: a lack of respect. There's already a penalty in place for checking from behind, but it doesn't work. The illegal-check-to-the-head penalty of the NHL's is brand new, relatively speaking, meaning players don't know where the line is. Show them. If a player like Foligno can get 10 games for an illegal check to the head, anyone can. That's where respect for other players begins... when it's your neck - and head - on the line.