| | Almost as stunning as what Marty McSorley did was what he said about it afterward.
With less than three seconds left Monday night and his team down by three goals, the Boston Bruins' goon took a two-fisted baseball swing with his hockey stick and caught Vancouver tough guy Donald
Brashear flush across the temple.
"It's not what I had intended to do," McSorley said. "I
wanted to go fight."
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Wed, February 23
Nobody should complain about the NHL taking acts of
violence too lightly after the league suspended Marty
McSorley the remainder of the regular season Wednesday,
plus the playoffs.
Without the stigma of an over-the-top "banned for life"
ban, the league made a clear case for its zero tolerance
policy for stick violations. If any player needed an
example of what will happen if he uses his stick as a
weapon, he got it when McSorley was handed this
decision.
This will be the new benchmark, surpassing Dale
Hunter's 21-game suspension for leveling Pierre
Turgeon in 1993. The warning is simple: use your stick in
such a manner and it might be all over for you.
Discipline does not go the other way, and any further discipline will be more severe.
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Think about what he said. The problem, as McSorley sees it, isn't that he tried to cave in the side of Brashear's head; that
was OK. It's that he used his stick instead of his fists.
Logic was next on McSorley's list for a well-deserved beating.
"I'm still kind of in shock at what I did," he said.
But no else should be. McSorley is the third most-penalized player in NHL history, trailing only noted thugs Dave "Tiger" Williams and Dale Hunter. He already had six previous suspensions in his career. Hockey sticks were listed as "accomplice" in several of those.
"It was just stupid. That's not the way I want to be known as a hockey player," McSorley said.
See above.
"Repercussions are the last thing I'm thinking about. I've got to reflect about what I did. I've played too many years and played too honest."
See above.
"I've got to come to terms," McSorley said finally, "with
what I did."
The NHL helped him out Wednesday by handing down the harshest punishment for an on-ice attack in league history. McSorley was suspended for the Bruins' 23 remaining games this season -- plus playoffs should a miracle occur -- and told to drop by commissioner Gary Bettman's office before even thinking about starting the next one.
If he's worried about what to say, we can save him a little time and a lot of soul-searching. And he, in turn, can save the game he says he loves a great deal of pain and embarrassment. Simply put, if McSorley isn't thinking seriously about retirement, now would be a perfect time to start.
He's 36, old for an enforcer. In the last year of his
contract. And a marked man. McSorley has played on eight teams and made enemies on just about all the rest. The last thing he needs is a farewell tour of the league. Besides, he's still getting off
easy.
Had McSorley gone after Brashear at another moment just about anywhere else with a piece of lumber -- in the locker rooms, hallways or the parking lot of the rink -- chances are he would face charges. And Vancouver police, aware of a precedent that put stick-swinging Dino Ciccarelli in the tank for a night a dozen years ago, might yet drag McSorley before a judge.
Either way, the league was stuck between a puck and a hard place. The only way to persuade authorities to stop meddling in its business is to look and act tough. On the other hand, for all the violence captured in that brief videotaped sequence, what happened between McSorley and Brashear, with a reputation of his own to protect, is a dynamic just waiting to break out a dozen times a night nearly every night of the season.
Fighting is hockey's dirty little secret. It's supposed to be
just a part of every game, instead of the point of playing.
McSorley compounded his sin by admitting as much.
He and Brashear tangled barely three minutes into the game, and McSorley got the worst of it. While his teammates played hockey, McSorley spent the rest of the game trying to goad Brashear into a rematch. Frustrated by a lack of success with words and elbows and cross-checks, McSorley finally drew back his stick and let go.
The sooner that image fades from memory the better for everybody involved. Fortunately, the result was "only" a concussion that will cost Brashear some three weeks of playing time. But the raw quality of McSorley's hunt unsettled just about everybody who saw it, even players who never before questioned the ethic.
"Something like that takes the air out of the game," said Mark
Messier, who played with McSorley at several stops, but is now Brashear's teammate.
"It just blew me away," veteran Boston defenseman Ray Bourque
said. "It's not a good night to be a hockey player."
Wednesday was not much better. Bettman and his chief
disciplinarian, Colin Campbell, rightly put McSorley out of
commission longer than the 21 games Hunter received in 1993 for a blindside hit on Pierre Turgeon, who had just scored. McSorley can
make the punishment more effective still by walking away with limbs and senses intact -- and never failing to acknowledge the danger of what he did.
Besides, he learned a lesson that usually comes only at great cost. The problem with beating up guys for a living is that sooner or later, somebody younger and tougher comes along. Just holding his place had become a desperate mission.
Now, it only gets tougher. | |
ALSO SEE
Bruins' McSorley suspended rest of season
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