John Shipley: NHL tacitly encouraging dirty play

Well, before the Wild’s 4 3 loss Dec. 8 at Edmonton was over, a large group of sportswriters were in the media room at Rogers Place, watching the third period play out while writing for a tight deadline. There also was a large group of longtime hockey folks down there, and the talk was about the game ending hit Evander Kane had just put on Minnesota defenseman Jonas Brodin.

ADVERTISEMENT MORE MINNESOTA WILD COVERAGE: Pro Fleury plays a bittersweet thousandth NHL game in 3 2 loss He stopped 26 shots and became just the fourth goaltender in NHL history to play 1,000 games 20h ago · By John Shipley / St. Paul Pioneer Press Pro Wild without Kirill Kaprizov, no word on possible supplemental discipline The Wild’s points leader was knocked out of Saturday’s loss in Winnipeg by crosschecks from Brenden Dillon 21h ago · By John Shipley / St.

Paul Pioneer Press Pro Wild’s winning streak snapped at four with 4 2 loss at Winnipeg Former Wild forward Nino Nierderreiter scored two goals, and Connor Hellebuyk stopped 35 shots for the Jets 1d ago · By John Shipley / St. Paul Pioneer Press Pro The story of each interception that doomed Vikings quarterback Nick Mullens The common denominator is Mullens thinking he can make a throw that he can’t actually make.

2d ago · By Dane Mizutani / St. Paul Pioneer Press Pro Vikings won’t have to deal with Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander this weekend As a result, expect Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson to have a big performance. 2d ago · By Dane Mizutani / St. Paul Pioneer Press Pro As he nears NHL milestones, Wild’s Marc Andre Fleury shows no signs of losing his edge And that’s in games, practice or warmups.

‘It’s being a goalie, right?’ the veteran said. ‘You try to stop them.’ 2d ago · By John Shipley / St. Paul Pioneer Press Pro Streaking Wild not ready to check the standings But they’re fully aware of the stakes on the table for two weekend games against division rival Winnipeg 3d ago · By John Shipley / St.

Paul Pioneer Press Pro Wild prank war: Marc Andre Fleury vs. Brandon Duhaime The veteran goaltender and young winger have been trading jabs and gags 3d ago · By John Shipley / St. Paul Pioneer Press Pro Wild overwhelm Red Wings, 6 3, for fourth straight win Minnesota has won seven straight at the X and improved to 11 3 0 under head coach John Hynes 4d ago · By John Shipley / St.

Paul Pioneer Press Pro Patrick Kane on Wild coach John Hynes: ‘He was really good for me.’ Star winger played for Hynes in the U.S. National Development program before being taken No. 1 overall in 2007 draft 4d ago · By John Shipley / St. Paul Pioneer Press With Brodin skating to the end boards to retrieve a puck, Kane, trailing, sized up the defenseman and shouldered the veteran blue liner into boards, embellishing the hit with an elbow to the neck that snapped Brodin’s head.

No penalty was called. ADVERTISEMENT “I don’t know how you miss that,” an old school hockey vet said while chatting with a visiting sportswriter. “These guys get paid 200 thousand dollars a year. If you can’t see that, get a job in the bottling plant.” The NHL has a problem it is clearly unwilling to address.

The league wants to promote the breakneck pace and heretofore unseen skill in a sport that has never been more exciting, but it’s loath, it appears, to completely break with its tradition of deliberate, dangerous violence. ADVERTISEMENT The Wild and their fans know this as well as any. Brodin, one of the NHL’s best defensemen, hasn’t played since hobbling off the ice in Edmonton, on long term injured reserve with an injury to his right arm.

After Kane’s hit, Edmonton color analyst Louie DeBrusk, who played 11 seasons in the NHL, initially called it “borderline.” After seeing the replay, he said, “I’ve gotta tell you, that’s the kind of hit they want to take out of the game, to be totally honest with you.” ADVERTISEMENT Apparently not.

On Saturday, Wild star Kirill Kaprizov was knocked out of a 4 2 loss at Winnipeg by a couple of illegal cross checks to his lower back from Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon. Kaprizov, who reacted to the second as if he’d been tased, missed Sunday’s rematch at Xcel Energy Center, a 3 2 Minnesota loss, and it’s unclear when he’ll be able to return.

ADVERTISEMENT For the record, cross checking — when a player holds the stick shaft with both hands to check an opponent — is against NHL rules. It happens all the time, but it’s illegal. The message the NHL is sending is clear: For the most part, there is no negative consequence for dirty play — sometimes quite literally, as in the case of Kane and Dillon, often because a suspension and/or fine means little in a league with an average player salary of $3 million.

ADVERTISEMENT For some reason, it’s open season on Kaprizov. One of the NHL’s best forwards, and once again Minnesota’s points leader, Kaprizov missed almost the entire last month of the 2022 23 season after being drilled into the ice by Winnipeg defenseman Logan Stanley, who was assessed a 2 minute minor and no supplemental discipline.

Kaprizov returned for two regular season games and a first round playoff series loss to Dallas but was clearly not himself in those eight games. Both plays were dirty, neither was penalized on the ice and given the opportunity to address the plays after video review, the NHL declined. Brodin has missed 10 games and counting; Kaprizov, at best, was missing for an important head to head meeting.

What a bargain for Central Division rivals Winnipeg and Edmonton. Players tend to say they need to police games themselves, and it’s true. In fairness to on ice officials, NHL hockey is the world’s fastest team sport, and even four guys — two of them linesmen — can easily miss things like Dillon’s cross checks, which came after the play.

For the Kane hit, as stated previously, there was no excuse. The problem with players policing the ice is it doesn’t necessarily work. A look at recent NHL discipline reveals a one game suspension for Columbus defenseman Erik Gudbranson, who absolutely mugged Florida’s Nick Cousins in a Dec. 10 game.

Gudbranson appears out of line until you see the boarding hit he took from Cousins earlier in the game. Ryan Hartman tried to stand up for Brodin by starting a fight with Kane, who not only didn’t accept, flopped. Hartman was sent to the box, and Edmonton scored the winning goal on the ensuing power play.

The NHL tends to address the unimpeachably egregious stuff, like Chris Simon hitting Ryan Hollweg in the face with his stick (in retaliation, he later told the Pioneer Press, for being boarded and ultimately concussed) or, more recently, Detroit’s David Perron cross checking Ottawa’s Artem Zub in the head on Dec.

11. And it works. That stuff is rare. Maybe because the NHL’s elders feel it’s part of the game’s legacy, the league refuses to send a clear message about the day to day garbage play. Why? Because, for whatever reason, it doesn’t want to. ______________________________________________________ This story was written by one of our partner news agencies.

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