[Triumph36]

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oh gimme a [censored] break - boulerice is a 50-50 shot never to play in the NHL again, he wasn't a particularly good fighter/enforcer, and he's had two incidents where he's just lost it on the ice.

a lifetime ban could never be enforced. however, for a guy like boulerice who's probably only made $2-3 million in his career, the loss of that money and probable waiving/demotion could hurt quite a bit.

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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.

Lifetime bans will likely never be instituted due to resistance from the GMs, however, when an incident meets all of the criteria as part of the match penalty review (which provides exceptions for when any calibre of player commits a regrettable act of retaliation but not necessarily as an attempt to injure), then there's no reason why a new precedent shouldn't be set from the next incident.

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His first offense occured in the OHL 10 years ago. Since then I'm not sure Boulerice has been suspended.

So, you never know how long it will take.

Fact is, a lifetime ban is simply unenforcable and counter-productive. Sometimes guys snap and do things they would never otherwise do - it's unfortunate, but it happens. The longest ban, barring a Happy Gilmore-taking-my-skate-off-and-stabbing-someone-with-it, will probably be a season, and that's if a Boulerice-like incident results in serious injury.