NHL lowers boom on Scheifele with four-game suspension

Opinion

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This article was published 03/06/2021 (1370 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mark Scheifele showed no mercy to Montreal’s Jake Evans. Now the National Hockey League has lowered the boom on the Winnipeg Jets and their No. 1 centre.

A four-game playoff suspension is one hell of a message from a league that all too often looks the other way when it comes to player safety. In this case, kudos to them for finally having a bit of a spine when it comes to head trauma. Better late than never, I suppose, even if the timing couldn’t be worse for the local hockey club.

Winnipeg, down 1-0 to Montreal in the best-of-seven North Division Final, will need to win at least twice without their top offensive player to keep their season alive. It’s a significant penalty for someone with no previous disciplinary history. But as the damning suspension video released Thursday by the league shows, there’s simply no rationale for a vicious, senseless and completely selfish play near the end of Montreal’s 5-3 victory in Game 1.

This one is about as divisive as they come. The snap judgments and scorching hot takes started coming within seconds of Evans’ limp body hitting the ice on Wednesday night at Bell MTS Place, the result of one of the most violent and unexpected bodychecks you’ll ever see.

Some basically wanted Scheifele paraded before a firing squad or launched directly into the sun. Others were essentially suggesting he should be given the Order of the Buffalo Hunt and key to the city. Even some media and ex-players joined the chorus, frothing at the keyboard. Both ends of the extreme were quickly covered — largely based on which team you happen to cheer for and/or cover — without much room for subtlety or nuance.

The NHL doesn’t consult with the court of public opinion, of course, but their ultimate decision will likely please the “off with his head” crowd. I’ve taken George Parros and the department of player safety to task on numerous occasions in this space for being far too lenient, but that’s certainly not the case here.

I figured they’d come in around two games, possibly three. Anything less would have been a sham.

Let me be clear: Scheifele absolutely had the right to hit Evans, who was playing the puck and had his head down. This isn’t a case of interference. Nor was it an obvious head-shot. But there has to be some responsibility on the guy delivering the check to show restraint on a vulnerable opponent, especially when he’s already built up all kinds of speed and momentum by skating hard nearly the full distance of the ice. That’s the definition of charging, for which Scheifele rightfully received a major and game misconduct for.

What started as a potential puck race and/or back-checking situation where Scheifele might have had a shot at preventing the game-clinching goal took a more sinister turn, which the league clearly took note of.

It was a cheap and dirty play, by a player with no history of being cheap, nor dirty. But Scheifele was not himself in Game 1, a burr in his saddle all night that saw him on both the receiving and giving end of plenty of physical harassment against a Canadiens club that clearly got under his skin, and fast.

They’ll do that, of course, with the likes of Corey Perry and Brendan Gallagher and Shea Weber and Joel Edmundson and even former Jets teammate Ben Chiarot, who suckered Scheifele into taking a silly roughing penalty with just under seven minutes to play in the third period that only added fuel to the fire already burning within.

And with the game essentially over as soon as Evans tucked the puck into an empty net to make it 5-3 with under a minute to play, Scheifele saw a red. And a guy who isn’t known for throwing his weight around pounced at the chance to absolutely light a guy up.

If it was all about hustling to break up the scoring chance, why doesn’t Scheifele drive stick-first in an attempt at sweeping the puck away? Why does he actually glide for a few strides before ramping up again and taking direct aim at the unsuspecting Evans? Scheifele actually took one hand off his stick and turned his body, a sure sign of his true motive. He wanted his pound of flesh at that point. And boy, did he get it.

Evans was stretchered off the ice, which was certainly not Scheifele’s intention. You’re always hitting to hurt, but not to this level. But spare me the “You can’t punish the result” takes, of which I’ve seen plenty, suggesting this was only controversial because Evans was injured.

Of course that has to be a factor, just as it is in real life. A drunk driver going into head-on traffic who manages to safely make it home without maiming or killing someone doesn’t get the same penalty as one whose actions have deadly results. A sucker-punch that leads to a headache is treated differently than one that causes a fatal head injury.

Fortunately, Evans wasn’t hurt as badly as was initially feared. Truth be told, I thought he might have broken his neck the way he crumpled to the ice. A concussion is no laughing matter, especially for someone such as Evans with a history of them everything we now know about that kind of trauma. But this could have been a lot worse, for everybody involved.

There’s no question Scheifele instantly regretted his actions. You can see his mood change from crazed to confused to contrite in the chaotic aftermath. He crossed a line and he knew it, the magnitude of the situation quickly sinking in. If he was being tried in a court of law, rather than the court of public opinion, a defence lawyer might step to the podium and say “Your honour, my client pleads not guilty by reason of temporary insanity!”

Just like that, the first-ever playoff meeting between Winnipeg and Montreal has a most unlikely villain, albeit one who may now be done for the series. If Scheifele can return for a Game 6, he might want to have his own head on a swivel.

Edmundson, for example, vowed to “make his life miserable” in the heated aftermath of the incident. Coach Dominique Ducharme tried to walk back the threat of vigilante justice on Thursday — along with the potential league and perhaps legal ramifications that could carry — by suggesting any so-called revenge would be done within the rules.

I’d suggest the Habs should be satisfied with how the league handled the matter. There’s no question Scheifele has put a future target not just on his back, but that of every other Winnipeg player as a result of his reckless actions. More concerning, he’s put his team in a huge hole, with the health of fellow centre Paul Stastny, who missed Game 1, also in question, and top-pairing defenceman Dylan DeMelo also out with what could be a serious injury.

A tough pill to swallow, for sure. But Scheifele has nobody to blame but himself. He did the on-ice crime. And now he’s going to have to serve some well-deserved time for a split-second decision that is surely going to haunt him.

 

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg