Skategate

It's a rule that you have to add "gate" at the end of any kind of prolonged controversy, even though in the original Watergate scandal, "Watergate" was of course simply the name of the hotel. How "gate" became the mandatory suffix in such things is curious.

Chris Pronger steps on Ryan Kesler's heel during the Vancouver-Anaheim game on March 12th. Initial replays certainly show him stepping down but due to insufficient evidence, the NHL did not issue any disciplinary action. Now, two days later, a better replay has surfaced showing more clearly how Pronger engaged in a stepping motion. Will the NHL reverse its decision?

There's three reasons why this is a really, REALLY big deal. First, kicking or stepping is pretty well accepted as the worst thing you can do in hockey culture. It's a cardinal sin, for pretty obvious reasons. The NHL set a precedence showing they're on board with this, since earlier this year they suspended Chris Simon 30 games, the longest in NHL history (for an on-ice incident), for deliberately stepping on Jarko Ruutu (*cough*whoprobablydeservedit*cough*. Second, Chris Pronger has been suspended seven times in his career already, meaning any disciplinary action taken would be pretty severe for a player with his rap sheet. Third, Pronger may not have been as good last post-season as he was in 2006 with Edmonton*, but without him the Ducks don't win the Stanley Cup. So the stakes on this are pretty high; a top 10 NHL player on a top 3 contending team commits a heinous act in a league already with a reputation of double standards in their disciplinary measures (not just with players, but apparently with teams as well).

The biggest problem with this, and the one I really want to highlight here, is why the NHL announced no suspension was coming before having all the available video. What was the rush? If the reason for no suspension was insufficient evidence, shouldn't the NHL have made absolutely sure that no more evidence was out there? It's not like it took weeks or months to subpoena Time Life to get this video, the improved version came out the very next day. To me this is incredibly careless and mismanaged. By rushing a "no suspension" verdict, the NHL has emboldened those who ream them out for their double standards and weak follow throughs. At lot of the time those voices are pretty obnoxious and holier-than-thou, but they're gaining a lot of legitimacy with foolish decisions like these. Of course I'm biased because I hate Chris Pronger, but for the sake of the league's integrity they have to come down hard here. Suspensions create precedences, there has to be disciplinary consistency for an inherently violent sport to maintain any control over itself. Otherwise, get ready for every prosecuting attorney to jump all over the next high-profile on-ice attack. Keep an eye on those Ducks.


*Obvious fan bias, but probably true.

Update: On Primetime Sports on the Fan 590 today their news update mentioned that the league is taking a second look at the incident. We'll see what happens.