Rangers coach: Wrong on Sidney Crosby, maybe right on Simmonds ban?

One of John Tortorella’s favorite tropes is the way Sidney Crosby is coddled. For example, theorizing how the NHL would react if the Pittsburgh Penguins’ “whining star” was injured on a controversial hit.

At the very least, Tortorella evokes this when his teams are playing the Penguins. In that sense, New York Rangers coach Alain Vigneault went beyond the full Torts, in bringing up Crosby in relation to Ryan McDonagh’s concussion, and the lack of any suspension for Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers for concussing him.

Here's Vigneault, via Andrew Gross, who believes Simmonds should be suspended for the sucker punch OR for throwing his stick at the referees:

“I had a feeling he had a concussion,” Vigneault said. “We weren’t 100 percent sure. He had some symptoms.

“What I didn’t expect was the reaction from the league. An All-Star player gets sucker-punched, goes down. I wonder if that’s (Sidney) Crosby, what happens? What are the consequences? And, on top of that, a player breaks his stick, throws it at the referees. In the rulebook, that’s automatic. It’s three games. Nothing happens. It’s not even on the sheet after the game.

“And the referee came to me and I said, ‘Am I getting a power play here?’ and he said, ‘No, he’s getting a game misconduct for throwing his stick at us,’” Vigneault continued. “And it’s not on the sheet. I think maybe you guys (the media) should call the league and find out what happened because obviously we’re getting different answers.”

First off, can we retire this Sidney Crosby-gets-preferential-treatment nonsense?

David Steckel wasn’t suspended. Victor Hedman wasn’t suspended. Marc Staal dropped more lumber on Crosby’s head than a forklift at Home Depot and wasn’t suspended. Vigneault remembers that, right?

As for the Simmonds play … yes, it sucks that McDonagh is concussed. But what should Simmonds be suspended for, exactly?

A “sucker punch?” You’re going to get indignant over a “sucker punch” after Simmonds took a cross-check to the side of the head from McDonagh? Is it because “sucker cross-check” doesn’t roll off the tongue?

And the NHL Department of Player Safety hasn’t always suspended for “sucker punches” – the air quotes are because McDonagh is squaring off with Simmonds, and the expectation for a punch have to be there. Please recall Brad Marchand only getting fined for a retaliation on Gabriel Landeskog.

But on the stick-toss remark from AV, it's a fair point, obviously, if the referees made that decision on the ice but somehow ret-conned it on the postgame game sheet. The rule’s pretty straightforward:

So while I don’t think the NHL needs to explain the “sucker punch” non-suspension, this other aspect of the Simmonds situation could use some clarification.

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.