Why Alex Burrows’ Automatic Suspension Wasn’t Automatic At All

Late Monday morning, reports surfaced that Canucks agitator Alex Burrows would not be suspended for his role in Sunday night’s late-game fireworks. Burrows took a run at Johnny Gaudreau, similar to the one that Flames rookie Michael Ferland took at Luca Sbisa, and then was perhaps a little over-eager to defend himself when Kris Russell skated in to defend his teammate.

Burrows was assessed an instigator penalty on the play, and by the letter of the law, this meant that Burrows would automatically be suspended for game 4 of the Canucks-Flames series. Certainly, certain Flames media types were convinced that there was “nothing the NHL could do” to overturn this ruling, but as we saw just one day prior and were reminded by this morning’s news, the automatic suspension is overturned all the time.

So with that in mind, let’s go back and look at what a player actually has to do to be suspended for instigating a fight in the final five minutes of a hockey game.

First off, it’s worth noting that the instigator rule is almost never enforced. Per Earl Gordon on Twitter:

Since 2011-2012, those three suspensions have been to New York’s Travis Hamonic on March 1st, 2014, Florida’s Eric Selleck on March 19th, 2013, and Pittsburgh’s Craig Adams on April 15th, 2012. Adams’ suspension in 2012 was also the last time a player has been suspended for instigating in the playoffs. All other rather notable instigators, such as Evgeni Malkin grabbing Henrik Zetterberg in the dying moments of a Stanley Cup finals game in 2009, have all been acquitted of wrongdoing requiring supplemental discipline by the NHL.

It’s also worth noting that the “automatic” suspension for instigating a fight isn’t really an automatic suspension at all. According to rule 46.22 of the NHL Rulebook, a suspension for instigating a fight in the final five minutes of the game “shall be served unless, upon review of the
incident, the Director of Hockey Operations, at his discretion, deems
the incident is not related to the score, previous incidents in the game
or prior games, retaliatory in nature, “message sending”, etc.” So while it’s referred to as an automatic call, it’s really only a suspension at the discretion of the NHL, just as every other call is.

So what does it take to get suspended for instigating a fight in the dying moments of the game? Let’s look at the most recent example, where Travis Hamonic goes after Ryan Carter:

Hamonic’s Islanders are losing 5-1 to Carter’s Devils with just under five minutes to go in the game. Carter takes a bit of a run at Andrew MacDonald and catches him in an awkward position, before heading to the bench to change. Although the puck has now moved into the Devils end, Hamonic skates straight for the Devils bench and attacks an unsuspecting Carter from behind before a scrum forms and the melee is broken up.

A couple of things likely contribute to Hamonic’s suspension here:

Given that one of the criteria for the NHL to uphold a suspension for an instigator is that the play is “retalitory in nature,” it’s pretty clear why Hamonic was suspended. It also doesn’t help that he left the bench on a (legal) line change for the sole purpose of fighting Carter, which we know is grounds for suspension too given what we saw with the Mike Duco and J-F Jacques incident back in 2011.

Leaving the bench to start a fight is also what led to Eric Selleck’s 2013 suspension as well:

In terms of warranting a suspension, it’s initially tough to see exactly what Selleck did here. There weren’t any other fights in the game, and it wasn’t a penalty-filled affair either. The Panthers were also up 3-0 at the time, so it’s not as if Selleck was “message sending.” He also got TKO’ed by the larger Westgarth, who was just as willing a combatant.

Selleck’s suspension was actually for leaving the bench to start a fight and the instigator was tacked on top of the initial suspension, but it also strikes me as a suspension for being Eric Selleck more than anything. With all due respect, Selleck is a nothing player and an AHL goon more than anything. He’s never broken 10 goals in a professional season and picked up a comical amount of PIMs along the way too (947 PIMs in 332 career AHL GP). It’s possible that he’s a guy the NHL just didn’t want in the league so they slapped him with a suspension just to make life difficult. Would be tough to blame them if that were the case.

Finally, we’ll get to the most recent time a player was suspended for instigating a fight in the final five minutes of a playoff game: Craig Adams on April 15th 2012 against the Philadelphia Flyers:

This was that crazy Penguins-Flyers game that featured Sidney Crosby fighting Claude Giroux among other things. The Flyers were up 7-4 late in the 3rd period when James Neal took a huge run at Giroux, as Neal is known to do (Neal was issued a one-game suspension for this play), and a brawl ensued.

Pittsburgh’s first line was on the ice at the time, but Adams stepped on during the stoppage in play as players were being assessed penalties and the initial brawl had been broken up. At that point, Crosby and Scott Hartnell began scrumming again, and Adams came flying in as the 3rd man, throwing haymakers at the already engaged Hartnell.

Given the 7-4 score and previous incidents in the game and series, it’s once again easy to see why Adams’ suspension was upheld. The temperature of the series was getting absolutely insane, and the NHL likely felt as if they had to give a 4th liner like Adams a game just to send a message.

As a bonus, Deryk Engelland was also given a game misconduct in this scrum for continuing to try and fight after officials had made an attempt to restrain him. Sound familiar?

Anyways, the fact that Burrows wasn’t suspended for instigating is hardly surprising given the fact that in order for the rule to be enforced, it looks as if it has to be coupled with leaving the bench for the express purpose of fighting an opponent. This was true for neither Burrows nor Engelland in game 2, but given the now built-up animosity between Vancouver and Calgary, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the NHL keep a much closer eye on this series.

There have been three games of build-up now, and things are starting to get pretty nasty. While Engelland and Burrows have been allowed to play by the NHL, you can bet that both teams are on a very short leash now. Should a third instigator be handed out in the final 5 minutes of tomorrow’s game, I would not expect the NHL to be so forgiving for the player and team involved.