Stanley Cup Final: Why ban Carson Soucy but not Leon Draisaitl?

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We are not here to debate whether or not Leon Draisaitl should be suspended for his high hit on Alex Barkov during Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final between Draisaitl’s Edmonton Oilers and Barkov’s Panthers.

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We’re here to discuss the fact that he wasn’t suspended and what that reminds us about the NHL. This league can’t get out of its own way.

It says one thing – head injuries must be avoided – but then turns around and says, “Well, maybe not in this case.”

Whether Draisaitl actually intended to knock Barkov out by hitting him on the head as he stood up is irrelevant. The act took place.

In the past, such an action often resulted in a suspension. For some reason, that was not the case in this case.

When reviewing plays to decide whether a hit warrants a hearing and possible suspension, they generally follow a handful of criteria:

• The league makes it clear that players are responsible for the consequences of their actions. So what was the nature of the conduct in question? Was the action under investigation a violation of the rules? Was it intentional or reckless? Was there excessive or unnecessary use of force?

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• Did the fouled player suffer an injury?

• Has the player who committed the foul been suspended before? If a player has been suspended in the last 18 months, he is considered a repeat offender and will likely face a longer suspension than if it were the first time (or if he has not been suspended in the last 18 months).

• What was happening in the game when the incident occurred? Was it late in the game? Is the score uneven? Did something happen in the game before the incident occurred, either immediately or earlier in the game?

• Any other factors that may be necessary to assess the incident.

Draisaitl received a two-minute penalty for the game. The on-ice officials felt he broke the rules, but only to a limited extent. Given the lack of action by the Player Safety Department, it is safe to assume they felt this was sufficient discipline for the offense.

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When the NHL imposes additional disciplinary action, it releases an explainer video. As Draisaitl is seen lifting his feet to deliver the hit and then primarily touching Barkov’s head, the narrator’s voice can be heard in the video saying, “This is not a hockey game.”

However, there was no video. The NHL simply carried on.

And one wonders if another player who had hit Barkov would have been penalized?

In 2019, Ivan Barbashev of the Blues was suspended for one game in the finals for hitting Marcus Johansson of the Bruins in the head.

In its decision, the NHL described Barbashev’s strike on Johnasson, shortly after the Bruins forward fired a shot, as “a high, powerful strike that makes Johansson’s head the primary point of contact on a hit where such head contact was avoidable. This is an illegal check to the head.”

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It is difficult to see what Draisaitl’s reckless hit was supposed to do differently. Even if the hit to Barkov’s head was unintentional, it was reckless. He certainly should not have jumped the way he did, an obvious rule violation, as Elias Pettersson can now confirm.

But this is the NHL, where one foul can seem different from all the others, but also like many others.

Canucks fans aren’t wrong to point to Carson Soucy’s suspension against the Oilers for cross-checking Connor McDavid in the chin – a play that was widely considered an accident, even if it was reckless – and wonder why Draisaitl isn’t being held similarly accountable.

The only real justification we can see is that Soucy was using his stick: As other commentators have noted, for some reason the NHL has been pretty consistent about issuing suspensions when it comes to hitting opponents in the head with the stick – cross-checking, as opposed to random high hits – and those actions occurred outside of the game.

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Prior to Soucy’s suspension, there had been eight other plays in the previous three seasons that resulted in cross-checks to the opponent’s head or head area and resulted in a suspension.

But shooting an opponent in the head has proven to be a rather unpredictable story.

The NHL should be better at this, but it isn’t.

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