In reading this Colin Campbell’s statement yesterday, I am beginning to wonder if Bruce McLeod isn’t a Colin Campbell clone or cut from the same mold?
"No one likes when a player like Marc Savard goes down the way he did. No one likes when a player like David Booth goes down the way he did. But we have to be consistent. I know Matt Cooke is a repeat offender, he's been suspended twice in the last year. I can't suspend Matt Cooke for being a repeat offender, I have to find a reason. Right now our rules say that shoulders to head are legal. Matt Cooke did not jump, and did not do anything that we found illegal in his actions even though again you don't like what happened. I know it's not something that Boston fans, or hockey fans would like to hear. They want justice. We feel we have to be consistent and do what we feel is right and hopefully we've gone to a place in our meetings today that we can eradicate plays like this in the future."
- NHL Sr. VP of Hockey Operations, Colin Campbell
[Stanley Cup of Chowder]
All Colin Campbell said on this is this:
ReplyDelete"We screwed up with the Richards hit and, though we regret not having the balls to protect players like Booth at the time, we realized that maybe it should be looked at now that Savard has been injured in a similar manner. That being said, we can't suspend Cooke because we didn't suspend Richards. I mean, how would we look to Booth if we suspended Cooke? So, we say, good work, Cooke, you worked us. We'll get you next time... unless you invent some other way to injure a player that's not already expressly and exactly listed in the rulebook."
However, I do think that Shepherd is still worse than Campbell (McLeod is basically equal in this type of comparison to Bettman). The NHL has a debate over the competence of a few officials, but that's about it. The WCHA has a debate about the competence of the ENTIRE OFFICIATING SYSTEM AND STAFF. Quite a difference.