Just in: The head coach of the New Jersey Devils received sad news regarding his top player
Bobby Farnham, left winger for the New Jersey Devils, is a wise man. After all, he attended an Ivy League school where he majored in, of all things, commerce, organizations, and entrepreneurship.
Farnham will therefore likely pick up some knowledge over the course of the next four games, even though he will be watching from the press box rather than the New Jersey Devils’ ice. His “violent and predatory hit to the defenseless Dmitrij Jaskin” in the Devils’ 5-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night, according to the NHL, is what earned him a four-game vacation.
And Farnham is going to learn what the NHL may be trying to teach its players after all these years: that it’s just not appropriate to react angrily to clean hits. People’s complaints that the NHL isn’t hitting enough these days may have something to do with the fact that, for whatever reason, players feel that they must exact some sort of revenge every time a player hits an opponent with a clean check.
But perhaps that is beginning to change. Following a huge, clean hit on Oilers star Taylor Hall earlier in the game, Matt Hendricks of the Edmonton Oilers was given a three-game suspension by the NHL earlier this week for his reckless hit on Aaron Ekblad of the Florida Panthers.
And this time it was directed at Farnham, an energy player whose effectiveness requires him to walk a tightrope. In the relevant game, after Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk had crumpled him behind the net, Farham got up and made an entirely unnecessary run at Jaskin. The hit occurred exactly one second after Jaskin let go of the puck, as the NHL noted. The late hit threshold set by the league is 0.5 seconds. Anything over 0.5 may result in a penalty; additionally, it may be grounds for suspension if it is aggressive, predatory, or high.
According to Patrick Burke of the player safety department, “the predatory nature of the hit and its extreme lateness elevate it to supplemental discipline.” What was most intriguing, though, were his remarks that followed. Burke declared, “This is not a hockey play.” “A player seeking revenge against the other team has made a deliberate decision to do so by using violence and illegal means.”
