Montreal Canadiens: DoPS Still Has a Long Way to Go

Yesterday, the NHL’s Department of Player Safety (DoPS), suspended Winnipeg Jets centre Mark Scheifele after a vicious and dangerous hit on Montreal Canadiens centre Jake Evans.

On the ice, the call was a five-minute major penalty for charging and a game misconduct.

Scheifele had a hearing with the DoPS on the phone, and a few hours later, they released the video explaining he was suspended for charging for four games.

The DoPS has been getting a lot of criticism lately with the way they have been handling suspensions, or the lack thereof. I, myself, had criticized them after Washington Capitals’ Tom Wilson only got fined $5,000 for roughing Pavel Buchnevich.

This was ridiculous, and if it weren’t for this decision, I might be having a different conversation right now and be saying that a four-game suspension is clearly not enough.

But the DoPS has set the bar so low, that anything longer than a two-game suspension seems fair here. I get that it’s the playoffs and that Scheifele has no history of suspensions or fines. So, maybe comparing him to Nazem Kadri isn’t fair, considering Kadri’s history with suspensions. But in my opinion, the intent to injure was a lot more obvious in Scheifele’s hit on Evans than Kadri’s hit on St-Louis Blues’ Justin Faulk.

Yet, Kadri received an eight-game suspension, and Scheifele only got four.

Understandably, they also weren’t suspended for the same thing. Scheifele was suspended for charging, while Kadri was suspended for an illegal check to the head. However, the first point of contact with Scheifele’s shoulder was Evans’s head, and that should make it a longer suspension.

I thought it was surprising that the DoPS, somewhat, got it right with Scheifele, but what remains unknown is, what it will take for them to see dangerous vicious hits as they are: dangerous, vicious, and unnecessary.

There is no place for violence in hockey. I have said it and will keep saying it, again and again, there’s a difference between physicality and far-fetched violence, and it’s usually pretty easy to tell which is which.

Now I’m not only talking about Scheifele, or the Jets and the Canadiens, but just violence in the league, in general. That’s how bad it is. It happens that much.

What will it take for it to stop? Honestly, I have no idea. I would like to say that if the DoPS can be consistent and rational with their discipline, that violence will stop. But everyone knows that, not only it isn’t that simple, but that consistency by the DoPS is probably the bigger struggle, unfortunately.

There’s a reason hockey has changed so much over the past 30, 20, and even 10 years. It has become safer. You rarely see entire lines fighting. You never see players getting off the bench and on the ice to fight.

But, when we see things like Schefiele and Wilson’s unnecessary violence, it raises questions as to what it will take for these things to really change.

The fact that a player was or wasn’t injured after a play is always taken into consideration for the other player’s discipline, but it shouldn’t be. Sometimes they get lucky once and don’t get injured. Is the league just waiting for someone to get seriously injured (or die)?

It sure seems like it, and for every possible reason there is, it’s wrong, inhumane, and just barbaric.

What’s the point of punishing someone based on whether or not the victim was injured, if there was intent and the hit was avoidable? I’d say there is no point, and it needs to change. And I truly hope it will in a few years. Maybe then, I’ll finally be able to write about how the DoPS is doing an amazing job regarding players’ safety. But, unfortunately, we’re not there yet and plenty still has to change.