SAN JOSE — Vancouver Canucks captain Henrik Sedin doesn't understand why the National Hockey League exonerated Boston Bruin Zdeno Chara, but San Jose Shark Joe Thornton has an idea.
“It's just something with Boston; it seems like they have a horse shoe,” Thornton said before Thursday's game between the Canucks and Sharks.
“There's just something about Boston and the disciplinary [decisions] are on their side. I'm not sure why that is or anything. I'm not assuming that Colin's kid being on the team, that's why.”
NHL senior vice-president Colin Campbell's son, Greg, plays for the Bruins.
Campbell's assistant in the NHL justice department, Mike Murphy, ruled Wednesday that Chara would not be suspended for running Montreal Canadien Max Pacioretty into a stanchion by the player benches on Tuesday, causing head and neck injuries.
Thornton noted that only two games earlier, Bruin Milan Lucic was not suspended for a blindside cross-check to the head of Tampa's Dominic Moore, who was engaged with Bruin Nathan Horton after a whistle.
“We saw the Lucic cross-check to the head a couple of nights earlier and there's no disciplinary thing,” Thornton said. “It's just really bizarre.”
Sedin agreed with Thornton that all players know where stanchions are in rinks and understand the danger of hitting or getting hit in that area.
Sedin and Thornton are Hart Trophy winners, two of the best players in the NHL.
Citing Chara's clean disciplinary record, Murphy said the stanchion in Montreal caused Pacioretty's injury, not the Bruin pushing the Canadien towards the partition.
Presumably, then, if one player injures another by running him into a goalpost, the post is at fault?
“Exactly,” Sedin said. “What are you doing to do the next time Trevor Gillies comes down and runs a guy into the thing? You can't give him anything. And you tell the guys [Chara] has no history, so the next time he does it he still has no history because he didn't get suspended. I don't see the reasoning behind it. Give him at least something to show that's not acceptable.”
Sedin said he doesn't believe Chara intended to seriously injure Pacioretty, but it was no accident that the Canadiens player struck the pillar that supports the glass separating the benches.
Thornton said the decision not to suspend Chara reflects even worse on the NHL than the actual hit.
“I'll tell you this: if you say that you don't know where things are around the ice, I think you're not telling the truth,” Sedin said. “You play the game for 20 years, you know it's there. It's gotten to the point, you have to suspend guys if you hit the head. You have to do it even if guys say they didn't mean to do it or it's an accident. You have to start somewhere.
“I don't think players know where the limit is. That's the bottom line.”
Sharks winger Ryane Clowe, a physical power forward, said Chara probably was just trying to recover his position when he “threw” Pacioretty.
“Chara is so big, there's so much mismatch on size,” Clowe said. “I don't know if he knew he was going to throw him that far and have so much impact. I agree you've got to be aware [of the stanchion]. You know it's there. A lot of times you don't see too many hits in that area and I think that's why — most guys kind of let up a little bit.
“Chara has hit so many guys throughout his career and never been suspended, so he's obviously not a dirty player. [But] when someone is injured that severe, whatever the hit is, you expect some kind of punishment. I think you almost need to give some kind of punishment for having a guy injured that severely. I think that's something that maybe should be put in place.”
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