NHL makes tough, correct decision to suspend Kronwall for Game 7

TAMPA – Tough call. Right call.
 
The Detroit Red Wings will be without Niklas Kronwall – their best defenseman, an alternate captain – Wednesday night for Game 7 of their first-round playoff series with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
 
The NHL department of player safety suspended Kronwall for one game for charging Nikita Kucherov on Monday night in Game 6.
 
The DPS could have taken the easy way out. It could have fined Kronwall, showing it wasn’t ignoring the hit and putting Kronwall on notice that he would be a repeat offender next time, while keeping him on the ice with the Wings facing elimination.
 
Instead, it did what it had to do.
 
“We disagree with the decision,” said Wings general manager Ken Holland via text message, declining further comment.
 
That’s understandable. Kronwall has thrown many similar hits in his 11-year NHL career, and he had never been fined, let alone suspended. Reasonable people can argue details of this hit. The Wings’ season is at stake.
 
But here is the bottom line: This hit differs from Kronwall’s previous work in important ways and fits the criteria the DPS has laid out for supplemental discipline. If it’s worth suspending, it’s worth suspending, period.
 
If this were the regular season, Kronwall would have received two games, because he had no history of supplemental discipline and Kucherov suffered no apparent injury. There is no magic formula for converting regular-season suspensions to playoff suspensions. Two does not necessarily equal one. But in this case, at this point in the series, it did.
 
Charging is one of the worst-written rules in the book. Many think you need to take three steps before the hit. Many think your skates need to leave the ice prior to contact. The rule doesn’t actually say that.
 
Rule 42.1 says a charging penalty shall be imposed on a player who “skates or jumps into, or charges an opponent in any manner. Charging shall mean the actions of a player who, as a result of distance traveled, shall violently check an opponent in any manner.”
 
See that? It uses the word “charges” to define “charging.” It’s incredibly subjective.
 
In 2011, when the GMs were wrestling with the concussion issue, they went over the language sentence by sentence. One GM said: “Prior to today’s meeting, I had maybe read the rule before or maybe heard the rule before, but not specifically understood it.” That GM? Steve Yzerman, a Hall of Famer with the Wings, who now leads the Lightning.
 
But how the rule should be rewritten is a column for another day. The DPS was formed later that year, and eventually it outlined a clear standard for charging incidents that could incur fines or suspensions.
 
“If you launch on a check, you run the risk of a charging penalty,” said the DPS’ Patrick Burke in an educational video on the NHL’s website. “The greater the force – and depending on where the contact was made – the greater the penalty. Depending on the circumstances of the check, launching up and into the head of another player in a predatory fashion will likely result in some form of supplemental discipline.”
 
Kronwall has long lived on the edge without going over it, a master of technique and timing. His trademark has been to creep up the left-wing boards in the offensive zone and catch an opponent coming the other way with his head down.
 
If and when his skates left the ice, they did so because of the impact, not because he launched into the hit. If and when he hit the head, it was incidental because he turned his back into the hit and made full body contact.
 

He drilled opponents like Martin Havlat, Teemu Selanne and Jakub Voracek and never ran afoul of the league, even though Selanne called him “dangerous,” even though some suffered injuries, even though the DPS watched him closely.
 
But he always ran the risk that one day he would slip over the edge, and Monday night he did. His technique was off. So was his timing.
 
As he crept up the boards on approach, he appeared to try to turn his back into the hit, but he wasn’t on target. He launched and led with his left arm, striking Kucherov in the head. He didn’t make as much body contact as usual. Kucherov went flying backward. Joe Louis Arena gasped, then roared.
 
“I thought it was a good hit,” said Wings coach Mike Babcock.

There was no penalty, but there should have been.
 
The Wings argued Kronwall had at least one foot on the ice when he made contact. On the explanatory video, Burke said Kronwall’s feet left the ice “prior to contact.” In the end, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that Kronwall’s feet left the ice because he launched into the hit, not because of the impact.
 
The Wings argued Kronwall kept his elbow down on impact. He did. That doesn’t change the fact his arm hit Kucherov in the head.
 
Once again, straight from the DPS educational video: “The greater the force – and depending on where the contact was made – the greater the penalty. Depending on the circumstances of the check, launching up and into the head of another player in a predatory fashion will likely result in some form of supplemental discipline.”
 
Pretty clear.
 
So now the Wings will face the Lightning – the highest-scoring team in the regular season, the best home team in the regular season – without the player who has averaged more than 2 ½ minutes of ice time more than any other player on the roster in this series.
 
“It’s a huge loss,” said Wings forward Justin Abdelkader. “He’s our leader on defense and a leader in our locker room.”
 
It’s a huge price for a huge hit. Was it worth the risk?

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