The Department of Player Safety have handed out a punishment, and quite a hefty one at that. Zack Kassian of the Edmonton Oilers has been suspended seven games for kicking Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak last night. As the accompanying video explains:
It is important to note that while we acknowledge Kassian’s argument that he was trying to disentangle himself from the pile of players, that in no way justifies this action. NHL players regularly become entangled with opponents and teammates, and regularly remove themselves from the pile safely and legally, without putting themselves or their opponents at risk of serious injury…
…It is also important to acknowledge the Oilers’ argument that the kick was not forceful. We have always been clear that force is an important consideration for both on-ice officials and our department in assessing penalties or discipline, with more substantial penalties being handed out for more forceful or violent infractions. However we must emphasize that using a skate blade to make intentional or reckless contact with an opponent, regardless of the purpose, is entirely different from a hit that involves a player’s body or stick as there is minimal force required to dangerously cut or injure an opponent.
This is the fourth suspension handed out by the DoPS for Kassian in his NHL career, including one just a month ago when he attacked Matthew Tkachuk of the Calgary Flames. That means that Kassian is a repeat offender under the CBA, and will forfeit more than $166K in salary for this seven-game suspension.
It also means there will be absolutely no tolerance for this sort of thing or any other incidents that require supplementary discipline in the future for the Oilers’ winger. After just signing an extension with Edmonton, he’ll have to try and stay out of the DoPS sightline for a while.
Such a surprise! DPS botches it again!!! Hey, Parros & Co. – Skinner did virtually the same thing in 2012 – TWO GAMES!!! Does this mean you’ve invented the “Kassian Inflator”???
This is Kassians 4th suspension, skinner has that 1 suspension 8 years ago
The 2 games Skinner got was a travesty and claiming there is a Kassian inflator is sad. Simon got 30. Pronger 8. To be honest 7 is not enough.
I thought 5-9 would be handed down so 7 fits right in there. Inexcusable action and should be dealt with swiftly.
“Inexcusable action”? – correct! I agree wholeheartedly. Repeat offender? Correct again! The next person (especially a repeat offender) that does something like this will get nothing close to this number. Guys on Twitter put up the perfect flowchart that DPS appears to use, based on their severely inconsistent discipline: link to twitter.com
As a repeat offender, who kicked a guy in his shoulder pads, he should have been suspended. No one agrees on the length, but Kassian-haters want him banished to Botany Bay. Everybody else has their own numbers, as is evidenced here. He screwed up, but is being wrongly compared to other deeds by past players that are inconsistent in their own right. Remember the actual acts don’t have to compare, just how bad the offender is in the eyes of the juries. How long did the league take to move on Matt Cooke’s infamous knee-on-knee crap? After all, Cookie was just following Ulf Samuelsson’s sparkling example. The point is, Kassian SHOULD have been suspended, but these numbers are being expelled out of somebody’s backside. He IS a repeat offender, whose “wires do touch”, causing stupidity, at times. You all know he is NOT the only one who goes over the edge, but some of those other players don’t get the same discipline handed out to them. The same rules and discipline have to be meted out to all, not to just some. If Kassian is the most guilty this year, he’ll pay the penalty for that. He shouldn’t be hammered more than the next repeat offender though. Take a gaze at the responses (pro and con) from that thread: link to twitter.com
P.S. You ALL have a right to your opinion on the length of the suspension. But, you HAVE to accept the fact there is MASSIVE disagreement on the length and the process itself. The next offense the DPS takes up will have us doing this same crap all over again. How’s that for a bold prediction? Didn’t even involve Trouba this time, too…
The DPS has to have a more formalized mandatory minimum for suspension worthy offenses. This “extent of injury sustained” stuff is garbage. You are trying to protect the players not wait for an injury before laying down the hammer. What Kassian did is not a normal play.
prior history can be factored in as well (and should) but the was the victim injured stuff is completely moronic for using as an excuse to lessen a penalty.
DPS does HAVE guidelines – they simply refuse to follow them. After last night’s post, I happened to hear Bobby Mac on the Leafs Lunch podcast discussing the seemingly-random suspension lengths. He was not impressed with their process. I equate this to “moving the goal posts” in the middle of the game. No one is arguing that Kassian is a repeat offender, and the kick was stupid-wrong, just the fact he has been handed extra games without precedence. DPS guidelines are basically non-existent. One incident will be seen based on the extent of injury inflicted, but another won’t. That is unacceptable inconsistency with DPS.
Kassian is a meat head. Meat heads do stupid things. He will be a meat head again.
7 games is a travesty, should have gotten more. Didn’t Tie Domi get 8 games for a punch to Ulf Samuelson???
Herschel Yea well, at this point both were pieces of shit. Nobody cares about either of those two cheap shot artists.
Bostonboob! The point was that a kick to a player laying on the ice is worse than a punch (with glove still on) to the face of a cheap artist in Samuelson.