No NHL discipline for Pronger's stomp

The NHL does not have the stones to sit pronger for what he deserves. Look at the NBA, Carmello Anthony misses 15 games for an attempted punch.( pronger gets 8) Pronger could have injured the other player (look at what happend to his own teamate Perry) or worse and he will miss none of the time that matters most, the playoffs. When will the sentiment of "let them play" garbage leave this league. How can Simon get 30 games for the same play?
 
well at least he got something...would have been pretty sick if he got nothing or just 2 games...I do agree 8 games is not enough
 
It's ridiculous - it's almost like Bettman WANTS the Ducks to win another Cup.
Blatant favouritism - it's almost enough to make me turn off my TV.
 
From a financial perspective the Pronger suspension is double that of Simon. According to The Hockey News Pronger makes $6.25 mil or $76,220. per game for a hit of $610,000 for 8 lost games while Simon who makes $1 mil or $12,200 per game for a hit of $366,000 for 30 lost games.
Not sure if that enters into the equation but .....
 
Money has nothing to do with it since it's just proportional to their salary.

A precedent was set. Stomping gets you 30 games. Pronger stomped a guy and got 8.

It's BS.
 
^ I agree,
the money only shows that he's a star player, and the very clear illustration of a two tier justice system in the NHL.

He should have got the same or near the same as Simon.

I hear people saying "well, Pronger's was more of a hockey play, Kesler tied him up and Pronger was just trying to get free." -- BS, he stomped him,
I don't care if Kesler kicked him first, and then Pronger stomped him in return.
A stomp is a stomp, it's a dangerous play, and a player with the same track record got 30 games, how it's justifiable that he only gets 8 is unreal to me.

"Simon looked like he had left the ice and then came back, whereas the Pronger stomp occurred in the corner during play." - please, again, a stomp is a stomp.
If it happens 15 minutes after the game, or during a forecheck, you stomp a guy, you get 30, precedent was set.

This is why the NHL is NOT taken seriously, it can't help itself.

Look at MLB and steroid suspensions, set number.

Fighting, you get what you get, no matter who you are.

If an act is intolerable in the game, why is it more than 73% more tolerable when a "star" player does it, than when a plugger does it?

Absolute JOKE.
 
It's rare that I agree with Jim Kelley, but I think he's 100% correct this time. One of the best blogs IMO.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2008/03/18/kelley_suspension_pronger/

Jim Kelley said:
If you have different rules for different players then you don't have a sports league, you have a circus.

I've had more time than most to assess the National Hockey League's decision to first ignore and then suspend Anaheim Ducks defenceman Chris Pronger for stomping Vancouver Canucks' forward Ryan Kesler.

My thoughts on both the initial ignorance - and I chose that word carefully - and the subsequent eight game suspension come down to one word: Indefensible.

It is indefensible that Chris Simon, then of the New York Islanders, got 30 games for stomping on the foot of Jarkko Ruutu and Pronger, who committed the same offence, only got eight. It is indefensible that the league at first ignored the initial Pronger stomp and had to be shamed into reviewing it by the emergence of "new" video. It is indefensible that the "new" video had to emerge from sources other than the NHL. It is indefensible that the NHL Director of Hockey Operations can argue that Simon's "skate drop" (apparently the league can bring itself to admit that stomping goes on in its game) was in "totally different context" than the Pronger incident.

It is particularly indefensible to argue that Pronger's intent was any different than Simon's given that you don't stomp on a player with a skate blade to enforce "on-ice justice" or to "send a message". Whether you are a multi-time all-star or a thug, you stomp an opponent for one reason and one reason only: to inflict damage.

To ignore that simple fact makes the NHL the laughingstock of the pro sports community because in slapping Pronger's wrist the NHL has put forth the clear and obvious; it has different rules for different players.

And if you have different rules for different players or even, as Campbell has stated, "the rules are different in the playoffs," then you don't have a sports league, you have a circus.

The whole idea of sport, but especially professional sport is that the rules apply to everyone and every circumstance because if they don't, you can't decide the outcome by superior play, talent, work ethic or coaching, you decide it by giving special treatment to special players or by applying rules and even suspensions to some players but avoiding or diminishing them for others.

That's not sport, that's the WWE.

A game is a contest of skill played within rules and conditions that have to be applied to all parties on an equal basis. That can be difficult at times, but strangely enough that's not an issue here. What Campbell had to deal with in this case is simply two players, both of whom committed the same infraction, both of whom have the same reputation (although based upon conversations I've had with current era hockey players that Pronger is by far the dirtier player), both of whom have incurred the same number of suspensions and both of whom are equally well known to Campbell for their style of play and for their unwillingness to change.

You can even argue that Campbell has never had an easier decision. Last season, dealing with Simon, a player who had been suspended seven times previously, Campbell set the bar for games to be missed in regards to one of the most heinous and dangerous actions in hockey: 30 games for using the skate blade as a weapon.

This season, dealing with Pronger, a player who had been suspended seven times previously he lowered the bar to eight. Why, because the season was coming to a close? Was it because playoff games count more than regular season games? To whom? Was Kesler any less endangered than Ruutu? Is he saying the victim, as so often is the case in the NHL, doesn't matter?

I've seen the argument that says Kessler was impeding Pronger, certainly more so than Ruttu had impeded Simon and that's correct, but look closely at both incidents. Simon pauses, puts one foot into the bench area, and -as the league correctly noted at the time-brings the other foot down in what appeared to be an intentional attempt to injure.

Look closely at the Pronger incident. There is a point where Kessler disengages from his entanglement and Pronger realizes it. He looks down, puts one skate forward knowing he is clear to move away, then finds Kessler's leg and stomps on it.

Video rarely proves intent, but it's clear in both cases what each player did yet Pronger gets 22 fewer games than Simon.

Indefensible!

In regards to the video not surfacing until after the league ruled there would be no suspension because the initial tape of the incident was fuzzy, two things are indefensible here: One, why the league cited not having a clear tape as a reason to not make a ruling of any sort (as if video tape is the only option regards supplemental discipline); and two, why it made that ruling without a through and exhaustive search for a tape that we now know was clearly available to anyone who went looking for it.

Did the league need video tape when Montreal's Rocket Richard cracked a linesman in the face with his stick, setting off what is somewhat affectionately known in Montreal as the Richard Riot back in 1955 (which by the way got Richard three regular season games and 12 playoff outings)? Did it have clear and definitive video proof of proof exactly how hard Marty McSorley struck Donald Brashear (good for 23 games in 2000) or drop dead proof of intent when Tom Lysiak tripped up a linesman (good for 20 games in 1983)? Was there any video of the night Eddie Shore cleaved the skull of Ace Baily (good for 16 games) back in 1933? Do you think there was even the thought that the NHL might ever even have film of games on the night back in 1927 when Boston Bruins defenceman William "Billy" Coutu received a lifetime ban from the game for punching a referee in the face - reportedly under orders from his coach-- during a Stanley Cup final game?

And remember, this is a league that claims to embrace the power of video replay (yet occasionally allows a goal to stand when it goes in from a hole in the side of the net).

In at first dismissing the incident because of the quality of the tape and then not pursuing it, they buried their collective heads. It was left to people outside the NHL to hunt for "clean" tape, tape that forced them to confront what they had attempted to dismiss. When confronted with the indisputable proof, Campbell didn't then seize the opportunity to back up the 30-game standard, a standard he established and, if carried through the playoffs, would have established for all time that stomping on a player truly is repugnant, reprehensible and having no place in the game.

Instead, he turtled. He ducked his own precedent and offered up a limp-wristed ruling that will surely reinforce --in the mind of both players and fans-- that the NHL has a double standard when it comes to its players and its rules and that justice in the NHL is as blind as the man charged with determining it.

Unless the NHL has changed its standards (quite possible given the cry that arose from GMs and certain owners after Campbell started throwing around 20, 25 and 30 game suspensions last season), those actions aren't just indefensible, they are unconscionable.

If Campbell can't recognize that then his boss, Commissioner Gary Bettman, needs to find someone who will.
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