Re: Jesse Boulerice suspended 25 games
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Does it appear these 'stiff' suspensions are succeeding as deterrents? The fact that he's a repeat offender should guarantee that he gets a least double what previous first time offenders of a similar incident got.
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In a league of 600+ players, there will always be players who have a few screws loose and will ocassionally snap and do incredibly vicious stuff like Downie or Boulerice did -- no matter how severe the penalties. These things happen out of anger before these hyper-aggressive players have time to assess the consequences of their actions.
I doubt that Boulerice was thinking "Well, I'll probably get 25 games, but I don't care, I'm going to cross-check him in the face anyway" when he went after Kessler. Boulerice was in a blind rage and reacted. This will always be an unfortunate part of the game, no matter how much they try to deter potential future offenders.
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