The NHL Department Of Player Safety Has No Idea What They're Doing And It's Time To Just Accept That
Jake Voracek received a 5-minute major penalty for interference after this reverse hit on Johnny Boychuk on Saturday night. Was it the greatest call in the world? Absolutely not. Maybe he came up a little high and maybe the puck was a little further from Voracek than he thought it was. But when you look at the speed and angle that Boychuk took to the loose puck here, it clearly looks like the only option for Voracek here was to deliver a reverse hit to save himself from getting absolutely smoked from behind and end up going face first into the boards. It was a reckless approach from Boychuk, going up against a guy who is known for delivering some big time reverse hits. Not to victim blame here or anything like that but this is Johnny Boychuk having absolutely no idea about the situation he was putting himself in and Jake Voracek doing his best to protect himself from getting destroyed into the boards. In that position it’s either hit or get hit.
I’m fine with the interference call. I’m even fine with the refs handing Jake a 5-minute major for coming up a little high rather than just a 2-minute minor. Like I said, it wouldn’t have been the greatest call in the world but I would understand why they’d make that call on the ice. What makes a grand total of zero sense is the fact that the NHL Department of Player Safety decided yesterday that the call made on the ice wasn’t a sufficient enough penalty, and ended up slapping Jake Voracek with a TWO-GAME SUSPENSION for protecting himself along the boards.
Advertisement
Are you shitting me? Is this some sort of a sick joke or something? Two (2) games for just trying to make sure he didn’t get launched face first into the boards in a 5-1 game? Buddy. Know the fuckin’ situation here. The Flyers were SPANKING the fraudulent Islanders. They were bullying New York in their home barn for the 2nd game in a row. Obviously the Islanders were going to try to start taking a few shots here. I’m not saying that it was Boychuk’s intentions to go into the boards and deliver a dangerous hit on Voracek just because they were getting their asses kicked by the Flyers at home for the 2nd time in a row. But can you understand why Voracek would be a little hyper-aware of Boychuk flying down into the corner here? Or is everybody else in the world so goddamn stupid that they can’t understand the logic behind Voracek’s decision here?
Cleary the NHL Department of Player Safety is too goddamn stupid. And they’re not just too goddamn stupid in this particular instance. They’re too godamn stupid in just about every decision they ever make. Like the fact that Evgeni Malkin trying to decapitate Michal Raffl with his stick only landed him a 1-game suspension.
This was SO MUCH MORE dangerous than that hit that Voracek delivered. Malkin used his stick as a weapon. He swung it with reckless abandon and directed it toward another player’s head. But because he thankfully missed making direct contact with Raffl’s face and Raffl didn’t end up being injured on the play, Malkin only gets 1-game. Meanwhile, Voracek is simply protecting himself along the boards but gets 2 games because Boychuk gets hurt on the play? The heck is that shit?
You can’t make calls on suspensions just because somebody gets hurt or not. If Malkin catches Raffl in the face there, it’s a 10-game minimum. How is only giving him 1-game going to prevent him from pulling a stunt like that again? Are we just going to wait until we have somebody getting their eye taken out before we actually hand out the suspensions that guys deserve? For Christ’s sake I feel like I’m taking crazy pills here.
But you know what? I’m done with wasting time and energy on being pissed off about the NHL DoPS being incompetent. Because it’s never going to change. They’re never going to know what they’re doing and they’re always going to remain brutally inconsistent with their decisions. At some point you just need to decide when enough is enough. And I’ve had enough with trying to figure out the thought process that goes into any of these suspensions being handed down by the DoPS. So it’s time to just get used to it, I guess. Don’t bother trying to figure out what they’re thinking. Don’t bother to bitch or complain about any of these decisions. Because this Jake Voracek suspension wasn’t the first absolutely atrocious call made by the Department of Player Safety’s history, and it sure as shit won’t be the last. Time to just accept that they suck at their job, laugh at them and move on. And it seems like Jake has already done that.
