Why is Dirty Hockey Allowed?
Picture courtesy of Section303.com.
If you follow me on Twitter (@MichelleKenneth), you might have come across a tweet I sent out last Friday regarding the Pittsburgh Penguins/New York Rangers series.
@MichelleKenneth: NYR deserve to win this series. Play dirty…play disrespectful to the game itself…you don’t deserve to continue, PIT.
Just what was I talking about? Well, that would be Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin playing a dirty game of hockey. That was Game 5. Game 6, we get this:
What you’re looking for is Sidney Crosby with his hockey stick between the legs of Rangers’ Dominic Moore, followed by a spear into his groin.
Later, Crosby was caught slew-footing Dan Girardi [a move where a player comes up behind an opponent and kicks their leg out from under them causing them to fall]. It is an illegal play as characterized by the NHL:
Rule 52 – Slew-footing
52.1 Slew-footing – Slew-footing is the act of a player or goalkeeper using his leg or foot to knock or kick an opponent’s feet from under him, or pushes an opponent’s upper body backward with an arm or elbow, and at the same time with a forward motion of his leg, knocks or kicks the opponent’s feet from under him, causing him to fall violently to the ice.
52.2 Match Penalty – Any player who is guilty of slew-footing shall be assessed a match penalty.
52.3 Fines and Suspensions – There are no specified fines or suspensions for slew-footing, however, supplementary discipline can be applied by the Commissioner at his discretion (refer to Rule 28).
As you can see in the video, Crosby was definitely playing dirty. He was assessed a 2-minute penalty for cross-checking. What you’ll also see is that Henrik Lundqvist (New York Rangers goaltender) skate by squirting water on Crosby. Henrik was fined $5,000 for doing that.
Crosby, he got that 2-minute penalty, nothing more.
As for slew-footing Girardi, he didn’t even get a penalty.
This is not the first time Crosby has speared an opponent in the groin. He’s been doing it for years…and he gets away with it. He has been slew-footing for years…and he gets away with it.
When players from the opposing team go after him, the refs skate in immediately to protect him.
When he tries to hurt someone where it’s going to really hurt, the league does nothing. They are literally silent on the matter. But Henrik Lundqvist gets him a little wet and he gets fined $5,000.
So we not only see Sidney Crosby getting away with playing dirty hockey, but we also see other players across the league attempting similar moves and getting away with it, too.
Why?
How do you explain to your kids that it’s okay to spear a guy in the groin? To smack an opponent’s balls with your hockey stick? Why is the NHL teaching kids that it’s okay to play dirty hockey?
Why is Sidney Crosby, the poster boy for the NHL, teaching this?
That’s what this all boils down to in the end: What message does allowing NHL players to play dirty hockey send to the future generations of hockey?
It sends the message that it is perfectly acceptable to spear a guy in the groin, even though normal society would disagree with that. Spearing a guy in the groin is an attempt to do harm to that individual. There could be long term repercussions to a man’s health. What if the guy had undiagnosed prostate cancer and he got speared with a hockey stick and the athletic cup didn’t help him out?
Then again, what kind of man takes his hockey stick and spears a guy in the groin?
(c) 2010 Michelle Kenneth
Yet, this is the poster boy of the NHL. That is a very disappointing choice.
This wasn’t Crosby’s first time. There are other incidents of that same slew-footing and spear to the groin. Anton Volchenkov (New Jersey Devils) got the double whammy from Crosby one night.
Crosby plays dirty hockey because he can get away with it. Considering Crosby is one of the best players in the league right now, it is disappointing that he results to playing dirty hockey. He lowers his standards and plays this way…the scum of the earth way to play hockey. That is being disrespectful to the game itself.
There is no place in the NHL for dirty hockey. You want to play dirty hockey, find some fight club style hockey club to join up and play away from the eyes of children.
Parents shouldn’t need to avert their children’s eyes away from the game when a player decides to dirty up the game. If Crosby and the NHL can’t explain to children why it’s perfectly okay to spear a guy in the groin or come up behind someone and knock their feet out from under them, then I suggest they take it out of the game completely.
As for now, at least karma agreed. Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby decided to play dirty, so karma decided to make sure they were rewarded for what they deserved. They were beaten down by the New York Rangers in Game 7. You don’t deserve to win when you result to playing dirty.
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