Suspensions, Suspensions Everywhere and one that should have been

Well, Sheriff Shanahan has been at it again and has been dishing out suspensions and had a major fail again.

Shanahan suspended Kevin Porter of the Colorado Avalanche for his nasty knee-on-knee on Canucks David Booth and he got 4 games for it. This was obviously a suspension and if it had not happened I think you would be seeing something similar to what happened with Bertuzzi and Moore in 2004.

Ville Leino also felt the "wrath" of Shanahan as he received a one game suspension for his chicken wing elbow to the head of Matt Read. The lightness of the suspension was due to the fact that Read was not injured on the play but it did have the chance of being dirty and I think that a two game would have been alright as well.

A suspension that is in pending right now is Andy Sutton for his high hit on Alex Ponikarovsky. Here is the hit



I don't think this should be the length of suspension that people are talking about. Yes he did leave his feet but lets look at some facts of this hit. Andy Sutton is 6'6 and if he delivers a hit standing straight up, it is always going to be considered high. The hit Sutton delivered wasn't meant to hurt, he lead with his body, not an elbow or shoulder. If Sutton gets a suspension, it shouldn't be long, but from the way it sounds, it could be.

Finally, we have the fail of the century, by Shanahan and by the NHL referees. Here is the play.



Neil lays a good hit on Ovechkin, then while skating up the ice Ovechkin spears Chris Neil in the groin and Neil gets a penalty for diving. The refs obviously blew this call big time and should face some sort of music. I figured at least this is still going to be dealt with properly by Shanahan. Boy, was I wrong. Ovechkin got nothing for this and all I can say is, "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?". Seriously, I am a fan of Ovechkin but he should be suspended for this.

Also under the scrutiny of the recent calls I have taken a look at a few of the tweets on Brendan Shanahan.

Here are some of the better ones:

I guess Brendan Shanahan doesn't believe in harsh suspensions anymore.. #weak #justasbadascampbell by Connor_Thomson_

Someone wake me up when Brendan Shanahan's done ruining hockey. by Hemming5

Kevin Marshall should have a hearing with Brendan Shanahan for thinking he needed to hold MacIntyre's stick to limit his offensive potential by emptynetters

Brendan Shanahan's biography "The Metamorphosis" is a dark story about how he wakes up one day, transformed into Colin Campbell by TheStanchion

Jagr has 654 career goals, two away from Brendan Shanahan for 11th in #NHL history. (Insert Shanny suspension jokes here) #Flyers by BroadStBull

This is only the beginning of the bad, I honestly think that Shanahan is really screwing up and we are already seeing a ton of double standards. Has anything really changed in the NHL? No, all we have is a guy who is happy to be a cog in the system and keep what was the old standard and nothing has improved, just a guy who is a lot more happy to jump on what is considered a controversial hit to make it look like it has improved.