By Geoff Walter / SNY.tv

 

 

Hockey has always been a violent sport, but where exactly do you draw the line? What, exactly, is too much? How do you define "unnecessary roughness?" Answers to these are for the most part subjective, but when New York Islander Chris Simon took a hockey stick to the jugular of Rangers forward Ryan Hollweg, everyone seemed to agree that the entire ordeal was way over the line. Hollweg fell to the ice and laid there motionless, splayed out on the ice near the Rangers bench. Thankfully, his only injury was a gash across his chin. The Rangers used the ensuing five-minute power play to score the winning goal, and Simon was served with a record 25-game suspension, which includes any post-season games the Isles might play. Nassau County DAs considered filing charges against Simon, but say they will honor Hollweg's wishes and not pressing charges. Here's your chance to see my take on whether or not Simon should be taken to court, and respond with some thoughts of your own.

There's a difference between an in-game injury -- when someone gets hurt during the normal course of a game -- and a deliberate attempt to injure another player in retaliatory fashion. Simon's hit came 13 minutes, 29 seconds into the third period with the score tied at 1-1. Hollweg had just checked Simon into the boards with a legal hit. Simon was knocked to his knees, got up, yelled something at a nearby official, then skated toward Hollweg. With both hands he then raised his stick parallel to the ice, letting the head of the stick wrap around Hollweg's neck, snapping the Ranger's head back and cutting a gash in his chin.

Since 2000, Boston's Marty McSorley and Vancouver's Todd Bertuzzi have been successfully prosecuted for violent acts in NHL games. McSorley swung his stick at the head of Vancouver's Donald Brashear in February, 2000, and was suspended for one year but never played again. Bertuzzi was suspended in 2004 when, during a Vancuver-Colorado game on March 8, he grabbed hold of Steve Moore's jersey and punched his opponent in the side of the head. Bertuzzi wasn't reinstated until 17 months later, after the 2004-05 lockout. He was even granted a spot on Canada's Olympic team in 2006.

There are only two cases that are longer than the record 25-game suspension handed down to Simon. The first was McSorley's. The second was a lifetime ban issued against Boston's Billy Coutu in 1929 after attacking a referee in a 1927 Stanley Cup game.

One need only look at the history books of suspension fallout that follows these types of incidents. The player is usually universally derided, and no team will touch him with a 50-foot pole. Their contracts are not renewed, or voided altogether, and they can only find work with some relatively obscure team -- usually a basement-dweller or farm team. They then tend to fade away, leaving people to ask "whatever happened to that guy?" before reemerging (briefly) as part of a trivia question or having a cameo appearance on some laughable cable-tv reality show.

Moving to another country and playing there is always an option, but with the global media and the internet, even people in Russia have probably seen Simon and would try to make him "disappear" so fast it would make a KGB agent's head spin. Europe may not be an option for Simon either. The International Ice Hockey Federation extended Bertuzzi's suspension to cover their jurisdiction, meaning that he couldn't play in Europe during the 2004-05 lockout.

If you saw one guy beat up another, you'd call that assault. Add a large wooden stick, you've got aggravated assault. But put the two guys in uniforms, strap on a couple of pairs of skates and put them on an ice rink and you've got a hockey fight. The same could be said about boxing. This is a double standard that many have a hard time coming to grips with. Many believe it to be the root cause of the alleged inconsistency of rulings, suspensions andpunishments by the NHL -- it's seen through the prism of a sporting event, a form of entertainment. Yes, athletes realize that there are certain aspects of all sports which can cause them injury, and all athletes are injured at least once in their careers. The point is that we try to make them as safe as possible, and deal out appropriate actions both as punishment and as deterrents.

Obviously Simon's history of suspensions (six in total) contributed to the record suspension. The Islanders only had Simon under contract for one year, so his deal will run out before he is eligible to play again. It is highly doubtful that the Isles will renew his deal. Nassau County prosecutors will decide on Monday whether or not to arraign Simon on criminal charges. Apologizing for his actions, Simon said that "there is absolutely no place in hockey for what I did." Now there may be no place in hockey for Simon either.

Wanna argue with the Ref? Don't like the call? Go ahead and make your own!