A Phone Hearing Tomorrow For Dustin Byfuglien's Cross-Check On JT Miller Is An Absolute Joke

You gotta be kidding me. In case you’re not familiar with how NHL Player Safety works, a phone hearing means the max suspension Byfuglien will get for blatantly trying to decapitate a defenseless JT Miller from behind while laying on the ice is 5 games. That’s a fucking embarrassment. The fact that it wasn’t called a penalty on the ice is bad enough – but the league has had the opportunity to review this a thousand times. They’re trying to clean up the game & protect their players, especially from contact above the shoulders. Last week, Jared Boll was given 3 games for this high hit on Patrick Maroon.

Based on what the league is trying to accomplish, that’s deserving – but to tell me Buff’s cross-check is even in the same ballpark as a hit on a player skating in his direction with the puck is a fucking embarrassment. If Boll’s high hit is 3 games, Byfuglien should get 10. It was intentional. The puck was away from the net. It was on a player who was off his feet & face-down. Hockey players by & large play with a certain amount of respect for each other. Many infractions (like the Boll hit) are accidental – he wanted to lay a big hit but simply caught him too high. I don’t even know what you could make up to defend what Byfuglien did last night. It was just as deliberate as this, which earned a 15-game suspension back in a day where goonery was accepted and encouraged.

I guess Miller had to lose consciousness. Maybe he needed to spit out bloody & broken front teeth. Luckily he was able to finish the game & set up Kreider’s game-winner – nice touch having it be Byfuglien who got blown by. A lengthy suspension does nothing for the Rangers. Miller’s health and the W mean a whole lot more. Still, with all the “cracking down” the NHL is supposedly doing, this is the perfect opportunity to send a message to players who disrespect the game and intend to injure. In a case like this, the offender’s “clean history” shouldn’t matter. A 10-game suspension costs a Jets team fighting for a wild card spot one of their best players for the rest of the race & part of the first round if they get there. The penalty should be costly, not convenient for Buff’s playoff return – but I guess the “Department of Player Safety” is simply just a name.