Who's After Boulerice

Well we are not even a month into the hockey season and there has been to ugly incidents already. First the Downie and recently the Jessie Boulerice hit on Ryan Kessler. I applaud the league for handing out longer suspension than what they have done in the past. Maybe that will start players thinking about what they are doing on the ice a little more. Having said that I don’t think it the answer. Jessie Boulerice was suspended for an entire year of junior hockey for a more violent act then what he just did on Kesler. Yet here he is doing it again. The league needs to take one more step to take part of the thought process out of the hands of the players. What do I mean by this? Currently the player gets suspended. How does this directly affect the team? In the two incidents we have seen this year it has had no effect on the Flyers. They are still winning hockey games. Both players Downie and Boulerice are not key parts to the Flyers hockey club. Downie is a first year player that may not have even made the team this year. Boulerice is a fourth line player who plays only a few minutes per game. His role is easily filled by many other players in the Flyers organization. I would like to see the league consider one or all of the following options.
1- Suspend the coach when a player gets suspended. Not for the same length of time. This seems top have helped the players jumping over the boards to join fight on the ice. If a player leaves the bench to join a fight now they get an automatic 10 game suspension. The coach also gets a suspension for allowing the player to go on the ice.
2- Fine the team and the player. The player already looses money not playing during the suspension. They should also fine them for getting suspended. They should also fine the team. For each game a player is suspended the team must pay a fine of $10,000. For the Boulerice suspension this would cost the Flyers $250 000. I am sure they would not like that.
3- Suspend the roster spot for the length of the suspension. This is the one I would like to see the most. What do I mean by suspend the roster spot. When a player incurs a penalty on the ice, the player goes to the penalty box and his team plays short handed. This gives the other team a direct advantage. I suggest for any player suspended that the team he plays for should not be allowed to fill that roster spot. That would mean right now that the Flyers would only be allowed to dress 19 skaters instead of 20 for the next 25 games. This would give the other teams a direct advantage during those games.

What effect would these three things have on the incidents occurring again? Coaches do not want to get suspended, players, teams do not want to pay fines and team mates do not like playing short handed. I believe these rules would make the coaches, and management think about who they are dressing for each game. If they have a choice of dressing a player like Boulerice versus a more skilled player I think they will opt for the later. That is what I mean by taking it out of the hands of the player. There would be league pressure, coach and management pressure and most of all peer pressure to not do something stupid on the ice. I like the physical nature of the sport of hockey. I do not want to see that eliminated. What Boulerice did does not have any place in the sport. I do not accept the reasoning that a player was going so fast he could not stop. I am sure if they were going that fast too the net and the puck was suddenly there they could stop on a dime to try and score a goal. After the Downie hit there was highlight real shown on the sports shows of many hits from last year were players were hurt by the hit. I noticed one commonality about all of these hits. The player who was hit no longer had the puck. Hitting is a skill, just like shooting, passing and skating. Some people are better at it than others. Just because you play in the NHL does not mean you are a good body checker. Let’s remove the stupid hits from hockey today.