Stick it to the players who swing their sticks

Sporting News, The, March 6, 2000 by Larry Wigge

Headaches? I had a bad one last week after seeing Bruins defenseman Marty McSorley stalk Canucks winger Donald Brashear from behind and cowardly take a two-handed slash to the right side of Brashear's face with just 2.7 seconds left in the game. The blow sent Brashear to the ice unconscious with his legs twitching out of control. But my pain is probably like a lot of you who watch and love hockey, and it doesn't compare to how Brashear feels.

"It's the same every day," he says. "It even hurts when I talk on the phone."

Brashear will miss three to six weeks with a Grade 3 concussion. McSorley has been suspended for the remainder of the season and playoffs--his 23-game suspension is the longest handed out for disciplinary actions by the NHL--plus he will lose $72,000 of the $600,000 contract he signed with Boston this season.

But McSorley, a 36-year-old tough guy, lost even more. He lost the respect of a lot of folks around the NHL, people who defended his toughness through the years. He lost a chance to continue his NHL career. His reputation has been hit over the head--and no one will hire this hired gun again.

McSorley also is under criminal investigation by Vancouver police.

NHL vice president Colin Campbell was asked what he was trying to say with McSorley's suspension. "It sends a message that you can't strike another player with your stick, particularly to the head," Campbell says. "And when you do, the repercussions will be severe."

The suspension is open-ended, which means for McSorley to get back in the game, he will have to get permission from commissioner Gary Bettman--and if the repercussions of Brashear's injury are more severe than thought, the suspension could last longer.

"If McSorley plays another game in this league, then this league is a ... joke," Canucks defenseman Mattias Ohlund says. "That guy should be treated the same as if he tried to kill a guy on the street because that's what he could have done had his stick hit Brash across the neck."

When McSorley's attack on Brashear is the highlight of the day instead of a great move by Peter Forsberg or a goal by Pavel Bure, the sports fan gets the wrong idea about the game.

"This is not the way we want hockey portrayed," Campbell says. "This gives hockey a bad name. This is not what hockey is all about. McSorley's act is unacceptable. We can't undo this, but hopefully people will understand."

Not exactly.

Mighty Ducks left wing Paul Kariya, who missed nearly an entire season with post-concussion syndrome after Chicago's Gary Suter cross-checked him in the head, calls McSorley's act "inexcusable."

"This just looks bad for our game," Kariya says. "It takes our game back a step. When a play like this happens, it's front page in every paper, whereas all the great plays that happen in a season aren't.

"The league has to continue to fine and suspend players who use their sticks recklessly, raising the bar until those players are out of the game."

* The message

When you have players at high speeds, who are allowed to bump each other, all the while carrying a potential weapon, there is the risk of tempers flaring, whether stick-swinging carries a one-game or lifetime ban.

But wait a minute. What message did Campbell's sentence send when less than 24 hours after McSorley was banned, the Devils' Randy McKay thought he had been high-sticked by Montreal's Martin Rucinsky, whirled around and tried to give Rucinsky the same kind of two-hander that McSorley gave to Brashear.

Luckily, he missed.

All McKay received was a two-minute penalty. Deliberate intent to injure was there, too.

How do you defend a system when McSorley previously had been suspended seven times for acts of violence?

* Criminal charges

The NHL says it can police itself and pooh-poohs Vancouver police filing criminal charges against McSorley. But one reason Brashear has been so quiet on the incident is he is looking into damages like Henry Boucha got ($3.5 million) after Dave Forbes received criminal charges in their 1975 stick-swinging affair or the $850,000 Dennis Polonich received after he successfully sued Wilf Paiement for their 1978 incident.

* The goon factor

Bruins coach Pat Bums says none of this would have happened if Bra hear had not skated in front of the Boston bench and "flexed" in front of his team. That taunt, he says, enraged McSorley so much he demanded to go on the ice.

Mighty Ducks enforcer Stu Grimson says fighting is necessary in hockey or else the stick-swinging will get even worse in the NHL. But he has one solution: "If we tweaked the rules and said there's no fighting allowed in the final five minutes of a game," he says, "I think you'd reduce the chances of this happening again."

Immediate ejection for a fight in the Final five minutes? That's not a bad idea.

* Plenty of blame

A number of people have asked this simple question: What other intention could Bums have had in putting McSorley on the ice except to have him go after Brashear because the two of them had had run-ins the entire night?