Does The Suspension Have A Point?

Whenever a player does something considered out-of-bounds by the league, he gets suspended. Simple cause and effect. Do bad, get suspended. Matt Barnaby and Eric Cairns got a little naughty in the back of the rink near the locker rooms. A yell here, a punch there. They were just sent off the ice for the same and continued it in the hallway. Unless you watch the footage with sound a few times it’s hard to tell exactly what happened. Barnaby seems to have instigated it a little more. Big surprise, Matt Barnaby has a mouth. Eric Cairns threw a punch. Pretty good one too. Once again, no surprise, Cairns does throw punches. It’s a big part of his job with the Islanders.

I had no doubt they were both going to be suspended, as they should be. Barnaby got 5 games, Cairns has to sit out 4. Barnaby got the extra one for being a repeat offender. The suspension system in the NHL is not bad. The implementation of it sometimes leaves questions in all out heads. By that all I have to do is bring up the words “biased” and “superstar”. If you’ve been a fan of the NHL for a few years you have seen some questionable handouts. This one is not. Two guys with tempers feuded and got what we all knew was coming.

So where does the title of this commentary come from? Well, on one hand I am sure most of the fans were a little disappointed in both players for not controlling themselves. On the other, I know most liked it. The NHL has been losing some emotion. The passion is just fading. I was glad to see two guys that still have it. Go to a bar and tell me if the game on with the trap being played has anyone paying attention to it. Then tell me if a game with cross-ice passes and open-ice hits gets a little more. Of course it does. Two guys drop the gloves? Bar goes nuts. Now, I am not suggesting the NHL only appeal to bar crowds. But at the bar, you can’t change the channel even if you wanted to. The fans at home can easily get bored and flip.

My point is the NHL better have told these guys no more off-ice antics, but keep it up on-ice. The NHL may not want to promote fighting in any way, but it has to recognize that the fights have a positive effect on the game most of the time. The players feed off the emotion, the fans feed off the emotion.

Cairns and Barnaby are both among the top 10 in the NHL in fighting majors. They are both liked by the fans. Barnaby is often hated as well. People love to hate him. It works just as well. They have a role to fill on their teams; and although Barnaby has not had the scoring touch people thought he would when he was in Buffalo, he plays much more than the enforcer role for the Penguins. Eric Cairns came to the Islanders as a pure goon. A big kid claimed off waivers from the Rangers who could throw punches, but had a glass jaw. He was also a defenseman that didn’t play defense very well. He’s now solidified his hockey game ten fold and racks up a lot of ice-time. Sure this is on an Islanders team that has had injuries to Kenny Jonsson and Zdeno Chara, but he’s still proved he can now do more than just fight.

Players like these are underpaid and overcriticized. They can help their teams win by ways other than scoring goals. Of course, if they did that too, no one would say anything. But every player will not be a 50-goal scorer, and if he was, coach probably would not want him to mix it up so much. So someone has to. If you don’t believe that, look at the Senators of the 1998-1999 season. Last in fighting majors, first in their division. That got them crashed and swept out of the playoffs early by a fiesty Sabres team.

If you have ever watch National Hockey Night on ESPN then you have seen Barry Melrose. For years Melrose has been saying how his favorite player is Matthew Barnaby. The reason is simple, he plays to win, and at almost any cost. He shows up every game with spirit and energy. Why would you want some guy that can score 20 goals but avoids every check and sits out for a cold? You would not, but the NHL is starting to get more players like that every day. Maybe every player could use a little locker room skirmish and a suspension.