I have been biting my toungue (more or less) on this issue for the better part of the season, but after watching the first round of the playoffs and a couple games of the second round, I can't really hold my toungue anymore.
The NHL is becoming more of a joke every year and every game. The penalties are getting worse and worse, you touch a guy and seem to get a penalty but when you go out of your way and head shot a guy, unless he goes down with an injury, you don't have a call. Perhaps the NHL needs to go with less rules instead of more in order to help these ref's as they seem to get confused as to what a penalty is. A guy putting his stick in another guy for .5 seconds doesn't really need to be called. Instead maybe you should call the penalties where guys are getting hit in the head with elbows, sticks or anything else.
Then if the penalties aren't dumb enough you have dumb and dumber up running the show and they suspend based on injuries to the player instead of making the suspension based on the action. I don't care if a guy gets hit in the head and bounces up or if a guy gets hit in the head and is out for the season, it should be the same suspension to both.
If the NHL really wants to make themselves a true professional support, instead of making rules to stop fighting perhaps they should look at the clowns in the striped shirts and try to improve the on ice play.
