I was sitting at the kitchen table last night trying to help Blake with her math homework when she asked me why the rules change depending on who you know. It is a fair question for a seven year old asking about a game of tag where someone got mad because another kid didn’t follow the line (and I told her sometimes people make exceptions in their heads which makes it unfair). Then Michael-Vincent chimed in and said that he saw at basketball practice last week how some guys get called while others don’t. That is when you realize they are picking up on every little inconsistency we adults tell them to live by. It is hard enough for us to explain why the world isn’t always fair but it is harder still when a grown man like Connor McDavid tells us that the system itself needs fixing (and he should not have to be doing this).
McDavid called for an audit on how the NHL hands out suspensions and honestly after twenty years of holding a whistle I agree with him more than I can say. We are talking about the Department of Player Safety making decisions based on a phone call when they should be looking at the tape like any decent official does. There is something wrong when the maximum penalty for a hit that ends an All-Star season requires no one to even show up in person. It feels like we let the bureaucracy win over the health of the athletes (which is exactly what I tell my kids not to do when they try
One-Ry Out.