The night this happened, I really didn’t know what to say. There has been a lot of talk about suspensions lately, so naturally people wondered if Keith Ballard should be suspended for his two-hander to Vokoun’s dome. I know this is kind of old news now, but I’d still like to say a few things about it.
First of all, I think everyone, whether they follow sports or not, would agree that this type of behavior does not belong in sports. Even kids know that. It was ridiculous.
But it was also a mistake made during a game that requires a lot of emotion. Ballard doesn’t want to hurt his goaltender. It’s ludicrous to suggest otherwise. Still, apologizing and admitting that it was a mistake doesn’t change the significance of the infraction. He’s honestly lucky his carelessness didn’t result in a worse injury.
Don’t take what I’m about to say as a defense for Ballard’s action, but I don’t think he should have been suspended (he wasn’t, by the way). The only arguments I’ve heard in favor of a suspension are about sending a message to Ballard, to other professional players, and to young hockey players, that this type of behavior can not and will not be tolerated. As if that isn’t obvious already.
Suspensions are supposed to help establish a line between what is fair and legal, and what is not. There is no ambiguity in Ballard’s case. It wasn’t even a hockey play. Historically, while I may hate this practice, the NHL has basically used suspensions as a way of awarding justice to a wronged team that has an injured player. The offending player is suspended and the matter is supposedly resolved. Ballard injured a teammate though so you can throw justice along with intent out the window as cause for a suspension. I think this is a team issue. The appropriate thing to do is to allow the Panthers to handle it internally. No one was effected greater by this mistake than the Panthers themselves. By suspending Ballard, the league would be undermining the concept of the team not to mention conceding to the possibility that this could happen again. No player has ever swung his stick in frustration, baseball style, and struck his own goaltender in the head before now. Could it really happen again?
Besides, what really is the value of having Ballard sit out a few games? What’s the purpose other than to help extinguish this public relations nightmare? If no one else minds, I’d like to now forget this ever happened.