I know I talk mostly about baseball here, but there was a time in my life when I was just as devoted to the New York Rangers as I am to the Mets. The winter was a time for playing and watching hockey. I loved it.
When I got NASN a few years ago I started watching hockey again. Then they had a year long lock-out, which killed my reborn enthusiasm. A few weeks ago I started watching again. And, this morning I decided to listen (on delay) to the game between the Rangers and their Long Island rivals the Islanders. It was an exciting game with a great atmosphere - everything a sports fan loves.
Then this. I only had radio and the description of what happened took the enjoyment away for me. The video's even more shocking.
The fact that the Rangers won hardly mattered. I guess the fact that the thug who attacked his opponent like this cost his team the game is some form of justice, but really he should be kicked out of the league. Any suspension of less than 6 months is ignoring the severity of what he did. If he did that outside of a hockey rink he'd be on his way to prison.
The fact that the victim of Chris Simon's attack seemed to be making light of the incident is irrelevant. Winning is NOT all that matters. If the NHL wants to win fans back they have to stamp out this sort of violence.
The fighting is a little crude, but two men squaring off for a few seconds of powerless punching (very hard to get good drive on skates) is really not that big a deal. It looks worse than it is. This kind of incident is worse than it looks and it looks awful.
