Suspension Expected After Serious Wings Injury
Written by aparker, Saturday January 08 2011
As a long-time Detroit Red Wings fan, and hockey fan in general, it’s a disappointing day to say the least. Irreplaceable defensemen Brad Stuart is out for 6-8 weeks with a broken jaw, for what? A dirty, disgraceful, unnecessary hit - that’s what. It was a brutal hit that only resulted in a two minute minor penalty during the game.
Though this is bigger than just another Detroit injury. What makes it even worse is that the hitter, Tom Kostopoulos of the Calgary Flames, is a repeat offender. Earlier this season, Kostopoulos used his elbow against Minnesota defensemen Nick Schultz, leaving him with a concussion. While playing in Montreal in 2008, he was also suspended 3 games for boarding Toronto's Mike Van Ryn. Though apparently he still hasn’t gotten the memo that dirty hits to the head are bad.
These kinds of hits show not only disrespect for opponents, but for the sport and the League in general. The NHL should be offended that a player has such little regard for the rules, not to mention a lack of regard for anyone else. Something I’ve always liked about hockey is the level of respect players show one another, even their opponents - most of the time. Situations like this only make everyone look bad, when it’s often a minority that, for whatever reason, don’t believe in trying not to grievously injure others. If the NHL doesn’t take strong action now, this will continue to be a vicious circle with excellent players being taken out on hits that shouldn’t have happened at all.
The League claims to be taking head hits and blind hits seriously, if that’s true, then they need to take this seriously, especially if they want to keep players safe and continue to receive any respect from the fans. This is any easy call to make: if Stuart’s jaw is broken, it must have been a head shot! If he doesn’t care about injuring others, at least hit him where it will hurt - his playing time and his wallet.
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