Incidents like Mark Scheifele’s hit on Jake Evans will continue to happen because NHL treats the safety of its players as secondary

Opinion

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This article was published 02/06/2021 (1303 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The brutal hit by Winnipeg Jets star centre Mark Scheifele on Montreal Canadiens forward Jake Evans is something that should never have happened and shouldn’t ever happen again. To address that objective, the NHL needed to ensure Scheifele suffered the sort of consequences that would convince him — and every player — that this behaviour isn’t tolerated.

But that didn’t happen. This is, of course, a recurring theme for the NHL.

The league suspended Scheifele for four playoff games on Thursday evening. The league ruled the hit was a “high predatory hit that cause(d) injury.”

Still, that was half the suspension handed out to former Maple Leafs forward Nazem Kadri for another dangerous bodycheck just a few weeks ago. It’s even less than the previous suspension Kadri got while still playing for Toronto in the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs. For the Jets and their fans, the suspension to Scheifele is a significant loss that comes after the team lost the first game of their second round series to Montreal. But was the suspension so severe it will generate meaningful change? No.

The hit was outrageous. But in this type of incident, it’s always outrageous. And there’s always another one just around the corner because the NHL always wants you to believe there’s something nasty lurking around the corner.

There’s always immediate words of condemnation after something like this happens. Unless, of course, it’s your teammate who crossed the line. Or a player on the team you support. Or a player you need as a coach. Then there are always mitigating circumstances. A supposed lack of intent because the player “isn’t that kind of player.” Or a hearkening back to tougher times, when Scott Stevens used to do this kind of thing every other shift. In this case, Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice said he thought the Scheifele hit on Evans was a “clean” play.

But everyone who knows the modern game knows that it was not a clean hit. This was a completely gratuitous bodycheck that appeared to knock Evans unconscious near the end of Game 1 of the second-round series between the two teams Wednesday night.

Scheifele, 28, is a Kitchener lad who was ninth in NHL scoring this season, one point behind Nathan MacKinnon, one point ahead of Sidney Crosby. He’s Winnipeg’s best skater and would be the team’s best player if not for goalie Connor Hellebuyck. He makes $6.125 million (U.S.) per season.

Evans, on the other hand, is a 25-year-old Etobicoke native who attended the University of Notre Dame on a hockey scholarship. Compared to Scheifele, he’s a fringe player, a third- or fourth-liner who makes $750,000. The Canadiens reported on Thursday he has a concussion. If he’s lost for the rest of this series, the Canadiens, who won Game 1, won’t be terribly impacted.

Unfortunately, these types of hockey matters are not in good hands these days. The least competent and effective disciplinarian in the history of the NHL, George Parros, decided Scheifele’s fate. Parros, a heavyweight enforcer of limited talent when he played, has been unable to to establish a sensible, logical philosophy of dealing with NHL players who cross the line.

But this goes well beyond Parros and his questionable judgment. It has to do with the way in which this league and the hockey industry have long made the victim’s needs and interests secondary to that of the perpetrator. Indeed, starting with Game 2 on Friday night, you can bet Evans’ health will become a secondary matter to “how will Winnipeg adjust without Mark Scheifele?”

Kadri, now a member of the Colorado Avalanche, was suspended eight games for a dangerous hit on Justin Faulk of the St. Louis Blues. He has four games left to serve and will either be back for their second-round series against the Vegas Golden Knights or next, if the Avalanche move on.

And Faulk? The Blues have been eliminated. Do you ever hear of him, or how he’s recovering? Is it ever mentioned on “Hockey Night in Canada”? The players union, you’ll recall, appealed Kadri’s suspension. It wanted the ban decreased. Faulk was treated as if his interests barely mattered.

In the case of Scheifele’s hit on Evans, the Jets centre was ticked off at how the game had gone. His team was losing and he had been sent off for roughing late in the third period after being roughed himself in front of the Montreal net, the kind of ridiculous officiating NHL fans have just learned to accept night after night.

Scheifele, still steaming, got back out on the ice and, with Hellebuyck removed for an extra attacker, he and the other Jets were helpless to stop Evans from scoring into an empty net. So, after arriving too late to stop a goal, Scheifele let his frustration speak for itself. At full speed, he crashed into Evans, all elbows and shoulders and knees, and sent the smaller player spinning to the ice. And then Evans lay there, face down and motionless.

The NHL ruled it was charging, that Scheifele was “moving with excessive momentum” and “finished his check violently and with unwarranted force.” Scheifele apparently argued his momentum was generated by trying to make a legitimate defensive play. But the league ruled that argument was undercut by the fact he didn’t try to make a play on the puck with his stick, and that the puck was already in the net. “His intention on this play is to deliver a hard, violent check on an opponent,” said the league in a video release.

Hockey being hockey, after Evans was injured, a melee ensued. Only the quick thinking of Winnipeg’s Nikolaj Ehlers saved further injury to Evans, Ehlers crouched over the prone Montreal player while the other players looked for retribution or fights.

After the game, Montreal players and coach Dominique Ducharme had the usual inflammatory quotes about the incident. But if it had been a Canadiens player knocking out a Jets player? Montreal players would have said nothing. Or that their player was “just finishing his check.” That’s how it always is in the NHL, which leaves the players who call for league sanctions looking like they are just looking for a competitive advantage.

Other leagues do business differently. Back in 2019, for example, star Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett ripped the helmet off the head of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph and then hit him with it. The NFL suspended Garrett for the rest of the regular season and playoffs even though Rudolph was not injured. The NFL is certainly not perfect, but there haven’t been any helmet swinging incidents since.

The difference is that, on this issue, Gary Bettman and NHL owners don’t really want to eliminate gratuitous violence or they would have done so years ago. They believe it sells tickets and attracts viewers. and are too timid to try to sell professional hockey without those elements.

Even worse, the NHL and the players union both view the health and safety of the injured party, whether it’s Faulk or Evans, as a secondary consideration. Nothing in terms of punishing players who commit violent offences will change until that does. In this case, depending on how long the Winnipeg-Montreal series goes, Scheifele might even be eligible to return before Evans is healthy enough to play again.

Scheifele might, of course, wish he hadn’t whacked Evans, and he has certainly hurt his team’s chances of winning the all-Canadian North Division and advancing in the playoffs. But he did what he did because he knew the NHL tacitly supports such actions, never puts the interests of the victims ahead of the perpetrators and only delivers longer suspensions after multiple transgressions. He has seen others punished lightly for similar nonsense his entire career, so there was no stop signal flashing in his mind when he targeted Evans. He never worried for a moment that such a decision would seriously disrupt his career.

In the end, once again, we are left with a pointlessly injured young athlete, and no belief that justice has been served or that the game will change for the better.

Damien Cox is a former Star sports reporter who is a current freelance contributing columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @DamoSpin