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Shanahan: Weber ruling didn’t open door to playoff violence

Brendan Shanahan

NHL vice president Brendan Shanahan speaks to reporters during the annual fall meeting of the hockey league’s general managers, Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2010, in Toronto. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darren Calabrese)

AP

“[Brendan] Shanahan’s playoffs have been a bust since he turtled in making a decision on Shea Weber’s flight of UFC fancy in Game 1 of the Nashville-Detroit series. Since then it’s been a traveling freak show of late hits, scrums and head shots targeting both elite players and the odd mediocrity, too.” – Jeff Blair, Globe and Mail

“The NHL wonk in charge of making miscreants stay after school did nothing more than fine Weber a mere $2,500, and only that because that was maximum allowed by the collective bargaining agreement. No suspension. No missed games. No real punishment. Just a silly fine for a serious act. Shanahan got pantsed. He clowned his own league. He turned the best time of the year into a joke.” -- Steve Rosenbloom, Chicago Tribune

“I think the league had a pretty good opportunity to set the bar, and I guess they did.” – Zetterberg

To all of the above, Shanahan respectfully disagrees. The decision to let Weber off with a fine had nothing to do with the on-ice violence that followed.

Shanahan told USA TODAY Sports that he asked his hockey operations colleagues (who total almost 100 years of NHL playing experience) this question: “Did you ever sit in a dressing room in the playoffs, and say, ‘I was going to play this one straight tonight, but Shea Weber didn’t get suspended so I’m going to go to a completely different planet and go off the rails?’”

Shanahan added: “I don’t think Andrew Shaw decided to run a goalie because of Shea Weber. I don’t think he woke up that day and said, ‘I think that decision means I can run goalies.’”

At least one NHL coach would agree.

“Players don’t sit at home and say, ‘well if he didn’t get suspended I can do it,’” Bruce Boudreau told CBC.ca. “In hockey, things happen in an instant. It’s not a premeditated type thing, where you go and see if I can get away with hitting his head into the glass. To me it happened in an instant. I don’t think given that situation again, Shea Weber would do that but I mean it was there and he did it.”

He added: “It’s only the people that want to make a mountain out of a molehill and have nothing better to do that are trying to make this more than it is.”

For what’s it worth, I’m with Shanahan and Boudreau. If there was any connection to the Weber ruling and the subsequent offenses, it was miniscule relative to the attention it’s received.