MS
1%er
Hockey-Freak said:So most of you guys want to punish him more?
A 20 or 21 year old guy made a (bad) mistake, allthough he defenses himself to a attack. he has never gotten a major penalty, never fights another player.
there was one moment where he completely freaked out due to a attack as a 20 year old boy. and his "victim" got healthy quick (otherwise than in bertuzzis case) and you want to punish him more what could easily influence this great young guys carreer badly?
I think his punishment was enough and he should play hockey next year to show everybody that it was an individual case...
The point is this: if he had done that exact same action in a Montreal Canadiens playoff game instead of a Hamilton Bulldogs one, he'd be watching NHL games from the pressbox for the first 20-30 games of next season.
I understand that this was out of character for him, and that it was provoked. I also agree than Stafford should have been suspended for much longer. But the bottom line was that that was one of the worst stick swinging incidents in recent hockey history, and was an incredibly dangerous, irresponsible action. Because of that, he was given a stiff punishment. However, because of circumstances, it appears that he will completely escape that punishment, aside from the suffering he had to endure playing on a line with Jaromir Jagr this season instead of Jason Ward.
When you do something that reckless and dangerous in a pro hockey game, you deserve to be hit in your wallet, and deserve to watch your team play a bunch of games from the stands. Perezhogin received neither, and I don't see how anyone can argue that he received a fair punishment relative to his action.
There absolutely *must* be some sort of agreement in place dictating that suspensions should be honoured from league to league. It's common sense. Otherwise what's to stop anyone from going apesh*t if they know they never have to play in a league again. Jay Bouwmeester can play the AHL finals knowing that he can tomahawk a guy in the face and he'll never have to face punishment for it because he'll never play in the AHL after this year.