Florida Panthers' Prospect Owen Tippett Has Been Suspended In The OHL For--Wait For It--Flipping A Foam Puck Into The Crowd
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Here is something to think about. At some point in life, a group of grown adults had to sit down and discuss some new rule changes in the OHL. And as that discussion was taking place, a grown adult had to propose the idea of handing out a FIVE (5) game suspension to a player for flipping a puck up into the crowd. And then once that idea was proposed, the rest of the grown adults in the room all had to agree on said rule proposal and make it an official part of the league’s rulebook. Because, ya know, flipping the puck up into the crowd is a gateway crime to murder.
Now if you’re wondering why that rule would ever get proposed in the first place, I’m sure it has to do with some insurance/liability shit. All it would take is one bozo in the crowd to get hit in the head with a puck that has been flipped up to him, then he could sue and I doubt the OHL has some unbeatable legal team at their disposal. So I get why the league wouldn’t want guys flipping pucks in the crowd just to make sure that they never find themselves in that position. But to give a guy a 5 game suspension for something like this?
You’re better off taking a run at another player’s head than accidentally flipping a puck into the stands at this point. And that’s with a real puck. What happened with Owen Tippett on Friday was with a foam puck that was already tossed on the ice in the first place.
Hockey used to be Mike Milbury climbing over the glass to beat a fan with his own shoe. Now hockey is suspending players for tossing a foam puck back into the crowd. I don’t even know if we should focus on making hockey violent again. If guys are getting suspended because of a foam puck, we have a long ways to go before we can even think about getting back to some violent ways. Tough look for the game, truth be told.
Good news is that it’s only 1 game for Tippett. I don’t exactly know how the rules work here but if Tippett was suspended the 5 games for flipping a puck into a crowd, that means the final game of his suspension would be on Friday December 28, which is after the start of the World Juniors. I’m assuming that if you’re currently suspended in the OHL, you can’t play for Team Canada at the World Juniors. But imagine if he got the full 5 games and had to miss out of the WJC all because he flipped a puck into the crowd? A 2017 1st round pick who has scored 19 goals and 33 points through 23 games this year couldn’t play at one of the biggest international tournaments of the year all because he sent a puck into the crowd? I’m actually a little disappointed we won’t get to see all the chaos that would ensue if that were the case.