The Ryan McDonagh Act Continues As He's Sidelined With A Concussion

Bravo! Bravo! Encore!! We got ourselves a regular Daniel Day Lewis here! Ryan McDonagh is STILL committed to the act & will miss at least tonight’s tilt against the Devils with a “concussion”. He must be faking, because the only way a player can get concussed from a fist is if it’s an un-gloved haymaker. Bold strategy by the Rangers captain to miss games at a critical part of their season just to make a love tap look worse than it was. Let’s see if it pays off.
I already went through my view of the Simmonds/McDonagh incident. When word came down that Simmonds wouldn’t face additional discipline I was a little surprised he didn’t get a game but I wasn’t throwing my hands in the air either. The punch was deliberate & dirty, right on the button, delivered by one of the stronger guys in the league who knows exactly how to throw them. I don’t think (in most cases) that the end result should dictate punishment unless it’s a blatant attempt to injure though. Throwing a punch at an unsuspecting player (some of us will agree to disagree on that) deserves a match penalty and an ejection even if McDonagh laughs it off. In this instance, I don’t believe Simmonds was trying to give anyone brain damage.
The purpose of penalties & suspensions is to be proactive and protect players from injuries like this happening. While I obviously don’t like it, I understand McDonagh’s concussion not having any bearing on the league coming down any harder on Simmonds. The act is the problem. AV has other thoughts.
“I had a feeling he had a concussion,” Vigneault said. “We weren’t 100 percent sure. He had some symptoms. What I didn’t expect was the reaction from the league. An All-Star player gets sucker-punched, goes down. I wonder if that’s (Sidney) Crosby, what happens? What are the consequences? And, on top of that, a player breaks his stick, throws it at the referees. In the rulebook, that’s automatic. It’s three games. Nothing happens. It’s not even on the sheet after the game. And the referee came to me and I said, ‘Am I getting a power play here?’ and he said, ‘No, he’s getting a game misconduct for throwing his stick at us’, and it’s not on the sheet. I think maybe you guys (the media) should call the league and find out what happened because obviously we’re getting different answers.”
No surprise seeing Vigneault going to bat for his captain – and he’s got a point about the stick-throwing. Just like a match penalty fit the sucker punch by rule, so should a 3-game suspension for tossing your stick in the direction of the refs. But the damage is already done. Simmonds doesn’t matter. Sure it sucks that the Flyers get to keep rolling with one of their best players while the Blueshirts have to skate the near future without their top blueliner but clamoring for further punishment doesn’t help NY. It’s all about rallying for however long McDonagh is sidelined.
The Rangers have notched a pair of comeback wins without Rick Nash & shown a perseverance fans haven’t seen in a while. Similar to how they rallied around last year’s Lundqvist injury, this squad will need to figure out how to keep things rolling without arguably their top forward (Nash didn’t skate today) & defenseman. No one’s getting called up for tonight’s game so AV will rotate his RH defenders in that last left-side slot starting with Dan Boyle. I’m sure Saturday’s hero Keith Yandle will soak up all the minutes he can handle again as well. With 4 of their next 5 games at home, this is a crucial time for the Blueshirts to put a little more distance between them & the rest of the Metro nipping at their heels. Maybe a little adversity helps them do exactly that.