Punishing Ballard
Colin Campbell did not to take Eric Duhatchek’s advice on how to deal with to Keith Ballard’s reckless slash that missed a goal post and beaned his own goalie. Campbell decided to pass:
Colin Campbell said the highlights of the hit — and everything else that goes with it — was punishment enough. That, he said, and the fact Vokoun’s bloody injury, although it looked serious at first, turned out to be a lacerated ear that was not expected to keep him out of action for more than a game or two.
Fair enough. I do think Eric makes a good point, but I’m not really comfortable with the idea of punishing a player for hurting a teammate. Should a player be penalized if they accidentally clip a teammate with a high stick? The logic of Duhatchek’s position says yes.
That said, I wish the league had taken an easy step to assure this type of thing doesn’t happen again. Ballard’s intended act – breaking his stick over the goal in anger and frustration – is unsportsmanlike conduct. I think Campbell should have announced that henceforth his officials will call a penalty for that kind of behaviour.
I think that for the league to let this one slide is a joke. For all of their talk about head shots, and controlling your stick – they decided to pass.
Either a one game – of like you suggest, notifying players that this action is a 2 minute penalty (and can be reviewed by the NHL) would at least have said, “Something”.
They missed an opportunity to act…again.
I really don’t think that any league deterrent is necessary to prevent players from hitting their own goalies in the head with a stick.
It’s not so much who was injured, but the fact that he should be responsible for swinging his stick. It’s a mindless action that happens – but doesn’t need to be in the game.