NHL Sending the Wrong Message with Gudbranson Situation

Even if you didn’t watch yesterday’s Columbus Blue Jackets game against the Florida Panthers, you’ve probably seen replays of the hit Nick Cousins delivered to Erik Gudbranson – and the CBJ defenseman’s response. By making the calls the way they did, the NHL and its referees are sending the wrong message.

Early in the third period (24 seconds in, to be exact); Panthers forward Nick Cousins came in hard on the forecheck against Blue Jacket defenseman Erik Gudbranson. Gudbranson did a “shoulder check” before making a turn to go behind the goal with the puck, only to be obliterated right in the numbers by Cousins. Whether Gudbranson saw him coming or not, the onus on this play should always be on the person delivering the check. Instead of easing up or changing his angle, Cousins delivers a hard check right into Gudbranson’s #44 – then goes as far as leaving his feet to drive him low into the dasher.

Gudbranson went down for a few seconds, then sprung into action to try and get a piece of Cousins. After everything dissipated, he headed to the bench for medical attention because he was actively bleeding as a result of the hit. The penalty was called a 5 minute major for boarding on the ice; but was then reversed to a minor penalty in review. In what realm of hockey is this not a 5 minute boarding major?

I would seriously love to hear the NHL’s explanation on this. Maybe they need to make their referees answer to the media after games, or maybe they need a general spokesperson to explain what happened and why this was reduced in review. But across the hockey world, unless you’re a die-hard Panthers fan, it’s pretty unanimous that this should have been a 5 minute major penalty, and a game misconduct.

Instead, they decide to reverse the call and keep Nick Cousins in the game. They do nothing to calm the mood of the game, even as Gudbranson tells you he’s going to do something about it since they won’t. Maybe they should have just started throwing around 10 minute misconducts because of the scrum? But no, they do nothing, and the very next time Gudbranson gets within arm’s reach of Cousins, here’s what happened:

The result of this play? A 7-minute at will power-play for the Florida Panthers. Was that the right call? Yeah, admittedly, as a CBJ die-hard, they got this one right. But, it was completely avoidable if they had just called the rulebook earlier in the period.

Call the penalty as they originally saw it, and as it should have been called. That’s a violent check from behind that left a player bleeding. Is that really the kind of hit that should only carry the same penalty as someone accidentally flipping the puck over the glass?

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Now, as we wake up this morning, we know that Erik Gudbranson will have a meeting with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety as a result of this game … but no supplemental discipline has been announced for Nick Cousins. Let me break down the message from the NHL here: you can deliver a violent hit from behind that may or may not paralyze someone for a two-minute minor penalty. Then, if they do anything to you in retaliation, your team will get the game handed to you on a silver platter with a 7-minute power-play, and we’ll even go one step further and suspend the player that retaliated.

Got it? Make sense? No, it doesn’t to me either. It’s a joke, a travesty of injustice, and the league should be completely embarrassed by the outcome. This is why teams like the Blue Jackets felt it necessary to go out and add Erik Gudbranson, and Mathieu Olivier. This kind of play is what is going to bring a new age of enforcers to the NHL. After all, if the refs won’t police the game – the players will. I can only imagine we haven’t seen the last of this one, with the two teams facing off again in April.