Hockey Thoughts: a Proposed Rule Change

So, the Bruins managed to pull it out Sunday night in OT (yay!), but lost last night (*crickets*). Interestingly enough, if you don't score any goals, you can not win a hockey game. Funny, no? It's impossible. Now they're one loss away from picking up the golf clubs and starting summer (which I might not mind *quite* as much if the weather was, say, summery, but I digress).

I found myself thinking about how different the season could have been if Patrice Bergeron had been available, if he hadn't been out, injured, since October. I won't say that the result Would have been different, but it surely Could have been: losing one of your best players ten games into the season will change a team, and not for the better. I further found myself thinking about numbers.

Tomorrow night, Bergeron will miss his 77th straight game (per the Globe, he can’t return before next week maybe, at the earliest).

Randy Jones was suspended for hitting him (from behind, into the boards, hard enough to [potentially] kill him ) for 2 games.

Two. Two games.

So, here’s my proposal for a rule change: the Parallel Suspension.* In the case of a player injured by the actions of another, when the league is considering disciplinary action on the offending player, that player shall be suspended until the injured player is well enough to play again.

*I'm not the first to come up with this idea. But honestly, why not?

I will add that the league should have the ability to override the otherwise mandatory Parallel Suspension if, in their review, they determine that the player’s actions were not the primary cause of the injury. Nothing I’ve read about the Travis Roy situation, for example, suggests that it was a bad hit, just an incredibly, heinously unlucky one. The player who hit him should not have had his career finished for it. But how often is that the case?

If this rule was in effect now, Randy Jones would still be sitting, watching his team. That would be fine with me. He wouldn't even have to deal with pain and therapy. Even better, maybe he would have thought twice (or heck, once) and stopped himself from hitting another player, another human, in a way that could have broken his neck.

It is of course not possible to say for certain what effect it would have had on Boston if this never happened, or on Philadelphia if Randy Jones was out along with Bergeron. But Jones had 31 points in 71 games this season, and although he has yet to earn a point in the playoffs, his plus-minus is at a plus three, so he is clearly doing something for his team. Bergeron had 7 points in the ten games he played, which projects to 57 points in 82 games. Marc Savard led the team with 78, and in second was Marco Sturm with 56, so you can see what that loss means.

I believe it would be a good rule. The players talk about how they need to respect each other, but obviously some don’t. Maybe this would get their attention.

To play devil's advocate for a moment, some might say that the injured player would stay out (or be held out) of game action even once he was better, in order to further *punish* the offending player. I don’t believe that would be a factor: from what I understand of athletes at this level, they want to play. No mere revenge is going to keep a hockey player off the ice if he has a choice. The best revenge is playing well.

Dear NHL: there you have it. Sound good? I don't want to hear any of this nonsense about considering it or testing it in the minors for a few years first. Just do it. You've proved you can move quickly when you want to ( from A to B in no time flat). Wake up.

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Sign of the times (or yes, they're giving up on us now): Game 5 will be on NESN Plus channels, leaving NESN for the Red Sox. (Jess, sorry that you don't get NESN. I lived out of the area for 8+ years, I know your pain!) The reverse happened twice, much to my surprise, but now reality reasserts itself.

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Next time I post, I'll put up some signs-of-Spring pictures, or something less depressing. By the way, if I don't fit blogging in tomorrow night, I'm away this weekend, so it'll be next week. Wouldn't want you to worry about me: I'm off to wish my grandmother a happy 94th birthday (for real, this year).