Matheson suspension a positive step for the NHL

Let’s say this about the Mike Matheson vs. Elias Pettersson dust-up earlier this week a few times right out of the gate so Canucks fans don’t get mad at me:

I don’t like the hit. I don’t like the hit. I don’t like the hit. I don’t like the hit. I don’t like the hit. I don’t like the hit. I don’t like the hit. I don’t like the hit. I don’t like the hit. I don’t like the hit. I don’t like the hit. I don’t like the hit. I don’t like the hit. I don’t like the hit. I don’t like the hit.

But I was more than a little surprised the hit resulted in a suspension. Frankly, and I said this in 31 Takes, if it weren’t for the fact that it was Star Player Elias Pettersson taking the hit and not some third-line guy who’s fine and that’s it, I don’t think the hit would have even raised an eyebrow on the local broadcast at the time.

The fact that it was a star player, and the fact that it resulted in a concussion that will sideline said star player for at least a week but probably more, yeah that’s going to draw attention. Generally speaking I would like to see fewer guys dishing out a Samoa Joe-style ura nage — anyone who calls it a Rock Bottom doesn’t know a wristlock from a wristwatch — but I’ve seen a hit along those lines plenty of times. Probably not hits exactly like that, but I’ve seen plenty that look “ehh more or less” like it: Guy coming across the blue line or along the endboards with the puck runs into a defender and gets put on his wallet or flat on his back? Seen it a ton, and the DOPS video even mentioned that it happens a lot along the boards.

There were, obviously, extenuating circumstances: The fact that Matheson led with a can-opener, the fact that the puck was a mile from the play, the fact that Pettersson had just pantsed Matheson with some nice little moves, the fact that there was no penalty on the play, the fact that again there was a concussion because of the force of the ura nage. That all played into it.

But this being the NHL, I figured, “Well, they’ll let it slide.” I figured maybe Matheson gets a warning from the Department of Player Safety, or even a fine, because he had no history of supplemental discipline and he’s an actual good player. But a two-game suspension seemed inconceivable, especially after everyone except Caps partisans said “Boys will be boys” about Marchand going after Lars Eller.

(And I’m not one of these “Let ’em play! They’re ruining the sport!” old guy psychos. I want them to ban open-ice checks altogether and open the game up.)

I was just looking at it pragmatically: Overall DOPS has erred on the side of letting guys hurt other guys without supplementary discipline, to the point of exasperating the fans. That they suspended Matheson for the hit is, I would say, really good; little Elias Pettersson shouldn’t have to take harder bumps than AJ Styles.

And more to the point, I would say that this is probably the third straight suspension DOPS “got right.”

Obviously throwing the book at Tom Wilson was a tap-in of a decision, even if some people were maybe a little surprised at how many games he got. The guy is a menace and if, as the Washington Post weepily pointed out, he doesn’t get another paycheck all year (since he got a big chunk of cash as a signing bonus) maybe he’ll actually learn his lesson. And before that, the elbow Robert Bortuzzo threw on Michal Kempny was probably worth about two preseason games and one in the regular season.

Yeah they blew it with the Domi sucker punch on Aaron Ekblad by ensuring he didn’t miss a regular-season date, but he did, to be fair, pull five games out of the league, which isn’t easy to do.

All of which makes you wonder: Is DOPS finally going to start enforcing illegal hits in a more aggressive manner? Just about every fan and journalist I’ve seen on Twitter has been calling for that kind of move for years, and if it’s finally happening, then that would be awesome.

And in this specific case, I’m glad that we can reasonably say the league is doing more to protect star players, because no one pays money to see guys like Tom Wilson try to kill people. The NBA has a track record of perhaps over-protecting its best players by calling fouls for them that guys off the bench might not draw.

I would hope that everyone wants to see these things called evenly for all players, but the NHL has in the past kind of done that in the opposite direction: not being harsh enough for illegal hits on anyone. If they’re going to overprotect any class of player, the stars are the only reasonable group to get that kind of treatment. That said, Wilson got booked for a quarter of the season in hitting Oskar Sundqvist, who most Blues fans couldn’t pick out of a lineup, and Bortuzzo was wrung up for elbowing Kempny, who’s maybe the Caps’ ninth-best forward.

So maybe everyone will benefit from a new, harsher DOPS, except the guys who make their living playing on “the edge.” Then again, as with everything else at this point in the season, I’m willing to chalk these mostly positive results up to a small sample size.

Ryan Lambert is a Yahoo! Sports hockey columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

All stats via Corsica unless otherwise noted.