More Colin Campbell....

Time to strike while the iron is hot, the time has come for Colin Campbell to move on, I believe that Campbell usefulness has come to and end... I can see why people are becoming unhappy with the status quo in the NHL. after listening to this podcast. I have to admit that I had not heard the postcast in question till this morning, this man sounds like a bumbling buffoon.

PITTSBURGH - The NHL hockey operations department has endured a difficult season, and apparently it's far from over.

But perhaps it's time for NHL head disciplinarian Colin Campbell to step down from his role and hand it off to somebody else. Campbell has taken a large amount of criticism this season for his decisions, whether it was from suspensions handed down or plays in which it was deemed a suspension was not worthy.

Campbell is no doubt in a difficult spot, having to answer to the 30 general managers while dealing with plenty of backlash from fans and media for his decisions. And this playoff season has particularly been tough on Campbell as there have been five suspensions already handed out in the first round — there were four all of last postseason — on top of suspensions to Vancouver's Raffi Torres and Pittsburgh's Matt Cooke that carried into the playoffs.

But Campbell is starting to show the strain of the decisions he makes and all but snapped during a radio interview with TSN Radio, based out of Toronto, with James Cybulski and Dave Feschuk. Campbell accused the hosts at one point of having an agenda and not watching hockey.

"Thankless job? Yeah, it's thankless," he said. "Especially at this time of year when there's so much at play here with the playoffs and cities are involved. When you rule on certain situations, all of a sudden you become public enemy No. 1. ... Am I (ticked) off right now? Yeah I'm (ticked) off.''

Time for Colin Campbell to step aside.

I couldn't agree more... To be honest with you I don't know a lot of people that like Colin Campbell and I can't imagine him leaving would have a negative affect on the NHL. All I see is a positive.

Steve Simmons, Toronto Sun --- The time has come for Gary Bettman to take Colin Campbell aside, hand him a nice going-away cheque, and say thanks.

The time is relatively soon — at the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Campbell has been on the job as chief NHL disciplinarian for too long. He has become too erratic, too emotional, too exposed to be of real internal or external value to the league any longer. His explosive interview on TSN Radio this week was both telling and startling: There was a Howard Beale element to it all: Campbell may not be mad as hell — in most cases, I’ve found him to be rather sane, terribly human and always approachable — but he doesn’t seem to be willing to take it anymore.

The job of patrolling the out-of-control state of the NHL borders on the impossible. Campbell has had a long run and mostly a good run as sheriff. It’s time for someone else to find out just how impossible this position happens to be.

Is Colin Campbell done?

I read this article over at Puck Daddy earlier this morning and I am really hoping this rumor is true. This move is a long time in coming and frankly I am tired of his inconsistencies, star players have one standard of justice and goons and hard nosed players have another standard. Now if we can only get rid of Gary Bettman.

The speculation among many NHL insiders is that Colin Campbell will be replaced at the end of the season – he will either announce his retirement or take another league job.

Given Campbell’s lamentable track record as the league’s chief law enforcement officer, it is a move that is long overdue.

The last straw, of course, was his refusal to suspend the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Matt Cooke for his attack on Marc Savard of the Boston Bruins.

But Campbell’s performance, not just recently, but over a period of years as the NHL’s senior vice-president of hockey operations, has been so inept as to be an embarrassment to the league and also the commissioner Gary Bettman.

More than anyone, Campbell is responsible for the increased incidents of head shots, because of his refusal to move to eliminate them years ago. The Savard-Cooke incident was just one of many that could have been stopped had substantial suspensions been handed out for blind-side attacks dating back at least three years.

According to insiders, Bettman wanted to suspend Cooke but deferred to Campbell who argued that a rule didn’t exist to justify sitting down Cooke, a repeat offender.

That argument, of course, was pure nonsense. There was no rule in the books covering the indefinite suspension to Sean Avery a year ago for describing former girlfriend and actress Elisha Cuthbert as “sloppy seconds,” but he got it and he sat for six games.

Insiders believe Bettman was intimidated by Campbell and his staff, because they happen to be veteran hockey guys, and Bettman is not.
[Truth or Rumors]