Canucks Army Postgame: The (Attempted) Revenge Of Stephane Auger

Highlights

Quick Hits

• Although this isn’t the hit we’re likely going to end up talking about tomorrow, Kevin Bieksa was assessed a checking to the head penalty in the first period, which resulted in a two-minute powerplay that the Preds scored on, giving them a 1-0 lead. You can see footage of the hit in this post by Thomas Drance from earlier tonight.
• In a fair and just and consistent world, this should be a suspension. Let’s be real here: it was a pretty obvious hit to the head and hits to the head are dangerous and the NHL should strive to remove them from the game to protect the people that allow them to sell their product. With no prior precedent this season, I’d be fine with a suspension to Bieksa. He hit a dude in the head. You can’t do that.

• The problem is the “no prior precedent this season” bit. Based on what the NHL has ruled on other fairly blatant checks to the head this year, the precedent seems to be that you can deliberately hit a guy in the head, injure him, and skate away unpunished.
• We all remember Derek Dorsett being flattened away from the puck by Ryan Kesler, and we all remember Stephane Robidas elbowing Shawn Matthias in the face and concussing him. Neither hit was even given a second glance by the NHL, which ensures that whatever decision the NHL makes here is unfair and wrong to some degree. 
• If they stay with the precedent they’ve set this season and keep making bad decisions, then, well, Kevin Bieksa will remain unpunished for something he should be punished for. If they decide to step up and do what they should have been doing all along, then two Canucks were allowed to suffer traumatic brain injuries for literally nothing.
• Thank the hockey gods (and John Tortorella) that the Canucks have such a good penalty kill, not only for being a legitimate driver of a good goal differential on the season, but for saving their bacon tonight. The Predators were gifted seven two-minute opportunities and another five-minute chance to end the game, which we’ll touch on in a bit.
• Vancouver battled hard at even strength, and managed to basically match the Preds attempt for attempt when they weren’t killing penalties. The Kenins-Horvat-Hansen line had a bounce back game in particular, generating a goal courtesy of a Hansen rocket, some more chances for Kenins, and leading all Vancouver forwards in Corsi%. Kenins may still have the odd brain cramp, and Horvat may still be young, but together they’ve managed to generate far more chances than they give up and fill a hole in Vancouver’s lineup. They’ve played well enough to be mainstays into the playoffs.
• But you all watched the game (or at least most of you did) and saw Nick Bonino’s slick passing play to Chris Higgins, and Alex Burrows nifty shorthanded goal. You saw a very strong even strength performance from a tired Canucks team, and were impressed by this group’s resiliency on this night. But that’s not going to be the topic du jour tomorrow. Instead, Alex Burrows received a five-minute penalty for interference and was tossed from the game late in the 3rd period for this hit on Paul Gaustad:

• Thom Drance has a look at the play here.
• This one’s trickier than the Bieksa play in my view, since the one camera angle above doesn’t give any clear indication of any head contact by Burrows. Gaustad stayed down though and drew a 5-minute powerplay for his team, and there was no update on his condition by the Predators after the contest.
• Both Burrows and Bieksa were ejected as a result of this play, Bieksa as a result of taunting an injured opponent (whether or not Gaustad was injured isn’t for us to speculate – you can get a concussion without your head being contacted at all so who knows at this point). Burrows was given a five minute major, and the Canucks killed off the ensuing powerplay, and would win in a shootout.
• It’s safe to assume that Burrows knew Gaustad was there and was trying to at least run into him. If there’s an angle that shows the head was the initial point of contact, I’d assume this play warrants a suspension too. I mean, look at where the puck is.
• If no such angle exists, then this was already over-punished, and as such, should be a non-issue going forwards.
• Again, consistency on behalf of the NHL is the problem. Like the Bieksa hit, any way the NHL rules this screws the Canucks in some regard. I suspend this hit in my league, but if the NHL does so, then why did Ryan Kesler and Staphane Robidas avoid supplemental discipline? Surely finding any differences between these unpunished plays and what Burrows did is purely an argument of semantics.
• Chris Pronger was interviewed by Sportsnet last night in St. Louis, and said something to the effect of “if no one’s happy, then you must be being fair!” I think most of us would disagree, because if we aren’t happy with the job the DoPS is doing, then there’s a possibility that they’re just doing a poor job.
• If anything’s working in Burrows’ favour, it’s that the league may be too preoccupied with Dustin Byfuglien literally trying to decapitate a man tonight.
• Nick Bonino and Radim Vrbata – two guys with actual, tangible, shootout ability – did what they were brought in to do after the extra frame and sealed Vancouver a 5-4 win, nearly locking up a playoff spot at this point in the season. Eddie Lack was shaky to start but bounced back over the course of the night, and other than possible pending supplemental discipline, everything is looking up for the Canucks.

Conclusion