On the Wednesday of October 23, 2013, a cereal killing took place at First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York. The guilty party? Buffalo Sabres Defenceman John Scott. This man, a disgrace to the great sport of hockey, just decided to behead Boston winger Loui Eriksson. Not only that, but the sole purpose of Scott even having a job is to take the other team’s goal scorers heads off while your team is getting their asses kicked. So why hasn’t his discipline been more severe? Here’s why…
Main Reason : Brendan Shanahan doesn’t know what he’s doing. If there is one word to describe this guy, it is probably toolbag. I mean, last year he suspended Andrew Ference for a love tap on Mikhail Grabovski in last year’s playoffs, but when an actual repeat offender attemps to take a defenseless player’s head off, it’s only seven games. The long and short of it: HE IS NOT DOING ENOUGH TO KEEP THE PLAYERS SAFE AND TO GET THIS CRAP OUT OF THE GAME!!! Also, it seems like when a Bruin is a victim of something like this, the league does absolutely nothing, but when it’s the other way around, the league comes down on them hard. God, what a fraud! Anyway moving on…
Secondary Reason: The greed of the National Hockey League. Since this game was nationally televised on NBCSN’s weekly “Wednesday Night Rivalry,” the league totally wanted this to happen. It’s just good for business. They spend pretty much all week hyping the game of the week up like crazy, showcasing the “bad blood” between the two teams, and something like this only makes the stakes higher. So I’m pretty sure the NHL said something like this to old Shanahan, “Hey, don’t come down too hard on this guy because this incident will be good for our ratings the next time these two teams meet. The sparks will fly and our wallets will get fatter.” I almost guarantee that league said that because that is what they shoot for every week. As sickening as it is, this is what the fans want.
What I Would Have Done: I definitely would have given him 30 games and that soft seven gamer to coach Ron Rolsten. First of all, I’d give Scott 30 games because he is nothing more than a stupid goon and the Sabres won’t miss him much. The man has 324 penalty minutes and only one goal, with rating of -9 in his career. Tell me, would you want this guy on your team? Of course not! The reason I would suspend the coach is because he is the one who put him out there. He knew what he was doing. He sent Scott out there to do his job and sadly, he did it well. He shares equal responsibility for intentionally injuring Eriksson with Scott, and needs to pay for it. When you really start to think about it, the NHL really blew an opportunity to make a big statement.