Sheriff Shanny

[shmenguin]

More and more I think they need someone totally non biased outside of the sport to make these calls.

I think shanahan was given orders by the head office to make the league's image his first priority. Hiring a non hockey person would lead to the same destination.

[no name]

So i guess these leave your feet hit with your back checks are allowed now, just like that Kronwal hit.

Shanny is losing my respect real fast. But still better than Campbell i guess.

If he doesn't suppend Kronwall for that hit the other night he really can't suspend. I think both players should of got it.

[penmyst]

It doesn't even have to be all on Shanahan. Make the refs call it as a penalty. It will stop if it's regularly enforced. Shanny has been terrible, but blame also falls on the refs who have been absolutely clueless in recent years in calling penalties. The suspensions are ridiculously inconsistent, but the front line is the on ice officiating.

If you call a penalty (2 min) every time someone leaves their feet for a check, before or after, you remove the grey area, you aren't punishing every person with a suspension, and it WILL stop if the players involved wish to remain employed. Call 5 minutes for gross violations and review the really bad ones. You could get that out of the game in 1/2 a year if you tried.

It comes down to the fact that they don't want to get it out and they really don't care about player safety.

You're last line sums up the truth.

To a sane person, asking the refs to enforce the rules sounds reasonable.

But it doesn't happen because the refs don't call penalties to enforce the rules. They call penalties to give teams a chance to score on Power Plays.

This is why consistency is very poor, if you are looking at ref performance from the paradigm of "call penalties against infractions".

If you change your paradigm to "call penalties to even the game up and keep it close", then it's perfectly consistent work by the refs.

And this is why it's not possible for refs to also attain the goal of calling penalties against charging and high hits. Many times, those infractions may occur at times that aren't congruous with the "call penalties to even the game up and keep it close" mindset.

The prime directive supercedes secondary or tertiary ones.

It's a top-down thing from the league offices.

Remember watching the past Olympics? Remember how some teams would draw 15 penalties, even as they were losing the game? Penalty calls that seemed to be caused by infractions, and irregardless of the scoreboard or previous amount of penalty calls (even allowing for lopsided PP chances)?

Yeah, you don't see that in the NHL. There is a reason for that. It's because you have too many people in positions of power (in the league) that do not understand that penalties are:

A. The fault of the player, not the referee.

B. Meant to punish infractions, not provide teams with the opportunities to keep games "close".

[MRandall25]

Even more evidence Shanny can't do his job:

[youtube][/youtube]

Torres, a guy with a rap sheet almost as long as Cooke's, elbows Hejda in the head. Only a fine. Engelland, no history, gets 3 games.

This is **** ****.

[Physical_Graffiti]

I don't think it was an elbow.

[the wicked child]

I don't think it was an elbow.

If it wasn't the elbow, he certainly drove his arm through the head. Dirty as hell.

[ExPatriatePen]

I don't think it was an elbow.

I blew it up and slowed it down... It wasn't an elbow, it was his shoulder, Right to the head

[Physical_Graffiti]

Per the rules, I agree, TWC.

[Physical_Graffiti]

I don't think it was an elbow.

I blew it up and slowed it down... It wasn't an elbow, it was his shoulder, Right to the head

Lol I'm aware.

[MRandall25]

I hate Shanahan

[bhaw]

Shanny and the Director of Officials compete nightly for being the worst executives in professional sports.

Can we call the "player safety" movement a sham yet? Or is it still too early because Shanny is "just getting his feet wet" and "has a really hard job?"

[Streaks House]

Was there a video explanation issued for the Torres head shot?

[MRandall25]

Was there a video explanation issued for the Torres head shot?

Not that I know of. Hasn't tweeted one.

[penmyst]

It wasn't an elbow. It was a shoulder. To the head. After the puck has clearly been moved away from the player.

How that doesn't draw at least a gamer is beyond all comprehension.

[brwi]

The hit was late and Torres definitely targeted his head and drove through his check to Hejda's head. Under the present rules, seems like an easy suspendable offense, especially considering the fact that Torres is a dirty player with a history already.

[Froggy]

The only thing I can see in the Torres play that would lead me away from a suspension is that the avalanche player, for some reason, drops to his knees as Torres is coming in for his check. It's still a late hit, but if the guy stays in his feet, it's a shoulder to shoulder hit.

[MRandall25]

The only thing I can see in the Torres play that would lead me away from a suspension is that the avalanche player, for some reason, drops to his knees as Torres is coming in for his check. It's still a late hit, but if the guy stays in his feet, it's a shoulder to shoulder hit.

Hejda dropped to his knee, but by the looks of it Torres had enough time to pull up and stop. It wasn't as if Hejda knelt into the hit. It looks like he lost an edge after clearing it.

If anything, it should have been at least the same call he made on Pacioretty. Hejda "put himself into that position" but it's on Torres to not take his head off.

[bhaw]

The only thing I can see in the Torres play that would lead me away from a suspension is that the avalanche player, for some reason, drops to his knees as Torres is coming in for his check. It's still a late hit, but if the guy stays in his feet, it's a shoulder to shoulder hit.

True, but the puck was far enough gone that Torres shouldn't be finishing that check anyways.

Colorado vs Phoenix = few people watching or even paying attention. Shanny can throw out a fine and keep it buried.

It would be nice if the NHL actually cared about fan perception. The whole video explanation thing shows how short sighted they are. They think that fans are demanding "transparency." I know Hammer is pretty adamant that this is what fans wanted too. But it's not. Fans want consistency. When the consistency is so poor, they want the transparency to get the moronic thought process behind the discipline. Transparency is NOT the root problem though. If it was consistent, there would be no need for transparency because a flagrant check from behind would be punished the same way every time, on the ice or off. You wouldn't need transparency because it's being done every time.

Now we have transparency, which only undermines the NHL. If you listen to his explanations earlier in the year (preseason), they made sense. Now he's back tracking on the precedents he laid out and you have statements to totally contradict what was said in previous explanations.

Consistency makes the transparency issue go away so the league can focus on important matters instead of scripting out Shanny's videos.

[MRandall25]

Apparently Torres hit someone else high last night...

Good thing that fine worked out so well.

[Froggy]

The only thing I can see in the Torres play that would lead me away from a suspension is that the avalanche player, for some reason, drops to his knees as Torres is coming in for his check. It's still a late hit, but if the guy stays in his feet, it's a shoulder to shoulder hit.

True, but the puck was far enough gone that Torres shouldn't be finishing that check anyways.

right... my point being that nobody ever got suspended for a hit a second too late in open ice, though. the contact to the head was not caused by torres, so take it out of the equation...

[bhaw]

Right, but hitting someone up high because you made a late hit puts it back into the equation. You can't absolve him because the guy fell when the hit should never have happened in the first place.

[MRandall25]

It's not like Hejda dropped into the elbow simultaneously with the hit. He was down and Torres had the chance to avoid it.

[PaLionking]

We'll see how consistent Shannaban is with Torres today. Has a discipline hearing for the high hit in Saturdays game. He'll probably only get a game with his history and Shannys consistency of being inconsistent

[Kovy27]

We'll see how consistent Shannaban is with Torres today. Has a discipline hearing for the high hit in Saturdays game. He'll probably only get a game with his history and Shannys consistency of being inconsistent

2 Games? For a repeat offender....but Engelland got 3 with no prior record. F You Shanahan.

[MRandall25]

Joke.