Rough Justice

I'm almost lost for words.

I've purposely delayed this post until the combined sage minds of the Elite League disciplinary panel finally decided what punishments to hand out to Rick Kozak (for, let's not forget, doing this damage to Marc Levers by smashing his face into the ice, and then kicking the blood all over the rink with his skates on the way off) and Brad Voth (for slashing Randy Dagenais' legs and then having a fight, which you can see for yourself 39 seconds on into this clip). And they have...

Rick Kozak gets 10 games (+10 should he reoffend)

Brad Voth gets 12 (+12).

Here's the official EIHL press release, via the Panthers site, just so you can see I'm not making this up.

So let's get this straight.

According to the EIHL, driving a defenceless player's head into the ice, from behind, and then kicking bodily fluids from that same fallen opponent over the ice, on purpose, is worth LESS than the kind of offence which occurs in every game (a slash to the back of the legs) followed by a rough (as in, punches thrown by both sides, but one being clearly on top) fight in which both players are willing or at least semi-willing participants? Does anyone seriously believe that?

Clearly, the minds that run British hockey do.

Devils fans have lost it completely-and you can't blame them. Hull fans are "wow...but that's not unexpected". The rest of the league reaction appears to be "thank you, Sheffield and friends...you've just well and truly lost all credibility for the league".

I very much doubt anyone in EIHL power reads this blog. I doubt even more that, if they did, they would take a blind bit of notice over what's said on it. But on the one-in-a-million chance they do...

Explain yourselves. Now. Properly. How on earth was this decision arrived at? Who drove it? Why were Sheffield allowed to release inflammatory press release after press release about an incident that was still being considered by league disciplinary officials? And can you honestly stand in front of Marc Levers (or Steve Moore, since the incident was British hockey's version of it) and say that his neck potentially being broken, a scar that will need plastic surgery to rectify, a possible civil prosecution, and his bodily fluids being sprayed at people, is worse than two things that happen in rinks all around the country, most weekends-i.e a nasty slash to the legs and a heated scrap in which one player comes off worse?

If you don't respond now, properly, then questions will begin to be asked about impartiality. And they'll only get louder. The British hockey community is waiting. And its blood is up.

Round the Rinks is something of a fallacy tonight...especially given that there will be no Double Overtime this week thanks to the Breakaway taking a week off-so it too is taking a holiday. I shall be keeping up with British hockey news from a distance in the next week, but for now, a correction.

Adam, a Phoenix fan who has contributed many an idea to this blog through his thoughtful emails and responses to topics, has pointed out a basic flaw in my rubbishing of the end of the world from Wednesday. It seems it would never have happened then since a) nothing has actually hit anything else yet and b) the combined energy released had anything done so within the LHC would have added up to...well, about the pop of a soft-drink can. I stand duly corrected...and thank him for informing me of this fact and that I now know a little more about why, despite all the doomsday predicitions, I've still got a canal to go on holiday on...

That's all until next Friday, folks...enjoy your weekend of hockey (yes, even you, Steelers fans) and we shall be back with a proper review of the week just gone next Friday.

Keep keeping your eye on the puck...