Jesse Boulerice suspended 25 games

[vin17]

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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.

[Hopey]

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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.

[mutigers5591]

i dont know anything about hockey but on the 2nd hit what makes it illegal is it that he went up into the head and not into the body or what.....i mean he didnt use his stick or anything

[Triumph36]

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[ QUOTE ]
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.

[/ QUOTE ]
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.

[MikeRice]

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i dont know anything about hockey but on the 2nd hit what makes it illegal is it that he went up into the head and not into the body or what.....i mean he didnt use his stick or anything

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Are you serious? Rundown

10 strides when 3+ usually=charging
Hit to head
Retaliatory from a Shubert hit 20 seconds prior
Leaving Feet
Targeting an unsuspecting player who got rid of the the puck on the other side of the net and was just circling around
Nearly ending Dean's career and or life.

[g-bebe]

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thankfully they got this one right

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Not really, IMO. No more than 2 weeks after Downie gets 20 games, Boulerice decides to break his stick on someone's face.

Until Colin Campbell/the NHL banishes one of these goons for life, the message will not be sent.

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you're never going to see a lifetime ban in the nhl. maybe a year, but you've pretty much got to do everything but kill the guy.

[MikeRice]

[/ QUOTE ] 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.

[/ QUOTE ]

The repeat offender policy is horrible IMO that you can't use incidents from non NHL/AHL games causes problems. Boulerice is now the culprit in 2 of the most vicious stick incidents in the history of pro hockey but they can't use his baseball swing from 9 years ago against him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aNG4uOpwUI

Obviously he's done in the NHL he made it on as an enforcer as a walk-on and he probably will not get any NHL offers but still something needs to be done to improve the system to because in the long run I think 25 games in a 82 game season is nothing for what Simon and Boulerice did. If Ricky Williams gets a year for smoking pot but these guys get 1/3 of a year there's something wrong.

[Troll_Inc]

This really sucks....there goes my fantasy team.

[vin17]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
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.

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

[/ QUOTE ]
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.