[vin17]

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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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Getting into how exactly a player measures the consequences of one action over another is a matter psychology, and I'm not sure how qualified we are to delve into possible root causes of it. I don't know, maybe all players entering professional hockey should be subject to psychological evaluation.

Fact is, you don't get to the NHL level without at least an ounce of reasoning ability. Coming up through the minors and professional hockey, even blockheads like Boulerice would have had to pick their sports. The Downie incident happened two weeks(!) ago. I highly doubt Mr.Boulerice wasn't aware of the details surrounding it prior to the game in which he smacked Ryan Kesler. Downie's hit was still a hockey play - a dirty one and one made with intent to inflict some degree of damage - but still a hockey play. Sure if you caught a guy in the perfect way you could break his neck or something, but Boulerice used his stick as a weapon (and IIRC, he used it in that OHL incident). A player using a piece of equipment in the middle of a game isn't any different from some guy on the street with a bat.

Some players just don't belong in the NHL. The NHL executives, acting on behalf of the owners have a right to protect their assets from threats. In the majority of these incidents, the victim is a player of higher skill than the guilty party.

Also, about how current level of suspensions (without pay) would have a significant affect on the offending player's livelihood...well it appears not to since all these guys are making minimum to close to minimum salary.