This preseason, Steve Downie viciously elbowed Ottawa’s Dean McAmmond. The NHL suspended Downie for 20 games. Last week, Jesse Boulerice’s cross check on Vancouver’s Ryan Kessler earned a 25 game suspension. The ink had barely dried on the paperwork on the latest suspension when the latest dangerous hit to the head occured. This one, however, will likely go unpunished.
It was late in the Saturday Columbus - Colorado tilt and the Avs were well in control, leading 5 to 1. Several members of the Blue Jackets were showing some on ice frustration, and Avalanche tough guys Ian Laperriere and Scott Parker were seeing as much ice time as possible to do their in-game policing. With just over a minute to go, Colorado’s Wyatt Smith and Columbus’ Duvie Westcott got together behind the Columbus net. They tussled while the play continued. Scott Parker headed towards the scrum, and Westcott decided to take a proactive stance: he crosschecked Parker hard in the mouth.
Unlike McAmmond and Kessler, the 6′5″ 230 lb Parker did not drop to the ice. He mantained his balance - but not his composure - as he was led to the box for roughing. Parker’s mouth was bloodied from the check, and he was incensed. Ultimately, we would be tossed out of game as well, which is probably for the better; he was so angry, he appeared to be just on the edge of losing control.
The Westcott hit was a dangerous and deliberate blow to the head of an opposing player, and looked every bit as vicious as the Boulerice hit. This would be the perfect place to link to the youtube upload of the check, but it doesn’t exist. Nor is there any mention of the incident in the various AP/CP recaps of the game. The closest I could find was a mention in The Columbus Dispatch:
Duvie Westcott roughed up Colorado’s Wyatt Smith, then headed to the showers after breaking his stick over the goal.
Today, the same writer has a more accurate description of the hit:
With 1:19 left in the third period, Westcott had Colorado center Wyatt Smith pinned on the ice and was shoving Smith repeatedly in the back to prevent him from getting up when Scott Parker came racing to Smith’s aide.
As Parker neared, Westcott pulled away from Smith and put both arms and his stick in the air to defend himself from Parker. Parker appeared to get struck in the mouth by Westcott’s right glove and the butt end of his stick.
That’s a bit closer to reality, although still seems to gloss over the fact that Westcott intentionally got his stick up to the face of an opponent. Self-defense or not, that is exactly the type of stuff that the league is trying to cut down on. Westcott is not known to be a player to take these kinds of shots at people, but surely he’ll be suspended for this. Perhaps not as long as thugs like Downie or Boulerice garnered, but it’s still a suspension-worthy play. Right?
Nope. From the same article: “It’s unlikely Westcott will be suspended, multiple league sources said.”
I’m not even going to point out that Kessler and McAmmond both play for Canadian teams (oops, what did I do there?). I will, though, point out that Kessler and McAmmond are, quote, skilled players. Parker is not. Parker is only out there to protect Kessler and McAmmond from these types of plays. In fact, that’s how he got nailed to begin with - he was rushing to help his teammate. When a guy like Parker isn’t around to help the Kesslers and McAmmonds of the world and an ugly incident happens, the league steps in and protects their players the only way they can - with a lengthy suspension. I guess the NHL feels that a tough guy like Parker can fend for himself.
LATER:
Indeed, no suspension for Westcott. Just a $1,000 fine. That should definitely deter any future dirty play.
Why donest the NHL get this. People will continue to do this stuff until you punish everyone equally for equal infractions. I don’t think it was as bad a s the Downie or Boularice hit, but wasn’t good.
10 games sounds about right, especially if they were going to be cracking down on this stuff. And game misconducts should be automatic 1 game suspensions, no matter what.
If Parker had been knocked out it would have been 20, but because he wasn’t injured badly it’s 0. Man I hate the NHL organization sometimes “Damn the Man!”
I actually just saw the Boulerice hit today, stumbling across it almost by accident when checking out something else. I had heard it was a pretty big deal, obviously. But when I saw it, my first thought was that it really wasn’t any worse than what we saw Saturday night…and that, of course, led to this article.
word is in, $1000, no suspension.
i dunno if Westcott meant to hurt Parker or not (probably not — hurting Parker is a death wish), but this slap on the wrist penalty is too light. It’s going to create a blood bath next time these teams play.
and when Parker or someone else on the Avs go to take matters into their own hands…the suspensions will fly.
I agree completely, absolutely ridiculous that it’s only 1K - that’s just pathetic. I was at the game Saturday night, wondered why Parker was reacting the way he did, thought he was going overboard. Glad I taped the game and got a chance to see the incident - it was bad, certainly worse than Westcott’s description of it.
The other ridiculous part of this whole thing is that the description of the incident and the word of the fine had to come from the Columbus paper. Neither the News or the Post have mentioned anything about it. I realize that hockey coverage in the two papers has been really, really poor in Denver ever since the Avs got here, but this is sinking pretty low. In other news, the imminent release of Broncos backup linebacker DD Lewis is front page on the Post website. That tells you all you need to know.
Glad I found this site, it’s my own fault that I expected anything from Dater or Sakowski on this. I’d have a hard time believing that there are many other NHL cities with worse coverage from their daily papes than Colorado.
Welcome!
one (final?) thought that I’m not sure how I forgot in the article:
it that hit was the other way around - Parker hitting Westcott - there’s no doubt in my mind Parker would be looking at a suspension on par with Downie and Boulerice.
I think the real sad part of this is that this inaction encourages players to go the route of soccer and the NBA. In order to get anything done you need to go down and get a trainer to take a towel to your mouth. There’s still an old school pride in hockey that won’t let this happen. There will still be the Morrows of the league that will cowboy up, even to the detriment of their own health. However, if going down like you’re shot gets you a power play and helps your team win then more and more players will go that route. It’s a very bad direction for the league.
meanwhile, the Flyers have waived Boulerice
Welcome to the blogosphere Dan. You’ll find there’s a a whole world of Avs infor out there, and this is certainly a fine place to start.
$1K, pathetic. Until they start basing suspensions on actions, not reactions, is the proper way to do it, these actions will continue to take place
THe $1k suspension is a joke and an insult to Parker. The NHL has basically taken the stand that Parker is not worth as much to the league as McAmmond and Kessler. Consipacy nuts will point this to another example of the NHL trying to phase tough-guys and enforcers out of the game to soften it up for a more ‘mainstream’ (whatever that means) audience.
The truly sad part is the inevitable suspensions and fines that will be leveled against Parker or Lappy the next time the Avs play Columbus. You know the league isn’t making a big deal about this now, but the officials for that game will get special instructions from the league to bring the hammer down on any retaliatory actions. I just hope we don’t end up on the OTHER end of another Bertuzzi-Moore incident. I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that a lengthy suspension and hefty fine for Wescott would avoid all of those potential issues.
I got fired up enough to post my complete thoughts over at BBnR.
If the league is really trying to stop this stuff then they need to address all the hits with a verbal repremand or monitary but they need to be consistant or they are just wasting their time and the boulderice ect fines (don’t mean squat)
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