NHL Insider speaks out against the Matthews suspension, thinks it was the wrong call
The vast majority of Leafs Nation was extremely frustrated with the Department of Player Safety's decision to issue a 2-game suspension to Auston Matthews for his cross check on Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin on Sunday.
There were multiple reasons for the frustration, not the least of which being that the league had issued nothing more than a fine to 18 consecutive players who faced supplemental discipline prior to Matthews' hearing on Monday, with many of the infractions also being cross checks to the head or neck of an opposing player.
Many pundits have deemed Matthews' cross check on Dahlin as a suspension-worthy offense, but there is at least one who believes that Matthews should not have been the guy that the Leafs should have made an example of.
On Monday, TSN's Chris Johnston appeared as a call-in guest on TSN 1050's OverDrive and he had this to say on the Matthews suspension:
"I think [Matthews] deserves a little bit more benefit of the doubt to be honest, and I say that because he's played nearly 400 games in the league... like, he's scored three times more goals than he's taken penalty minutes - which is almost impossible to do if you've played that long.
We've all watched most or all of his games... Can you think of an instance where he's lost his cool, really, or crossed a line? In this case, he knocked Dahlin down with a clean hit 30 seconds before [the cross check]. That play starts with Matthews delivering a clean check on Dahlin and then Dahlin following him around the ice and initiating the contact at the goal, shoving him into the cross bar and Matthews is trying to get him back and it glances off the shoulder plate and the stick goes somewhere that you don't want it to go.
We've seen a lot of plays happen in this league where someone gets fined who has no history - Auston couldn't have a cleaner sheet for someone who's played nearly 6 seasons in the league."
We've all watched most or all of his games... Can you think of an instance where he's lost his cool, really, or crossed a line? In this case, he knocked Dahlin down with a clean hit 30 seconds before [the cross check]. That play starts with Matthews delivering a clean check on Dahlin and then Dahlin following him around the ice and initiating the contact at the goal, shoving him into the cross bar and Matthews is trying to get him back and it glances off the shoulder plate and the stick goes somewhere that you don't want it to go.
We've seen a lot of plays happen in this league where someone gets fined who has no history - Auston couldn't have a cleaner sheet for someone who's played nearly 6 seasons in the league."
CJ really does have a point, and the George Parros did the same thing with Jason Spezza earlier this season, where he threw the book at a guy who probably didn't deserve it. In Spezza's case, was it a suspendable play? Sure. 6 games though? For a guy who has never been suspended in a 1200 plus game NHL career? Come on.
In Matthews' case, Parros had 18 cracks at setting a precedent with players who were equally deserving of a suspension for the same infraction, and he chose to throw the book at a player who has finished in the top 8 in Lady Byng voting every season he's been in the league.
Johnston is right. Matthews deserved the benefit of the doubt in this instance and it's really, truly unfortunate that the NHL continues to allow Parros to take liberties on the Leafs and almost no other teams to a similar degree.
| POLL | ||
MARS 15 | 612 ANSWERS NHL Insider speaks out against the Matthews suspension, thinks it was the wrong call Do you agree with CJ that Matthews deserved the benefit of the doubt? | ||
| Absolutely | 446 | 72.9 % |
| Nah, it was suspension worthy | 60 | 9.8 % |
| I don't care, but be consistent | 106 | 17.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
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