This is Simon's 8th career suspension, and his second this season alone (which began with him missing the first five games of this season, concluding his 25-game suspension (the longest in league history at the time) from assaulting New York Rangers forward Ryan Hollweg with a two-handed stick swing in March.)
The Isles took a preemptive move and suspended Simon from the team with pay. Simon then met with league disciplinarian Colin Campbell, who informed Simon of his 30-game suspension. Simon will also enter substance abuse counseling in addition to forfeiting $292,683 in salary.
The overwhelming reaction in the blogosphere is to throw Simon out of the league. I share this opinion- who does Simon have to hurt, and to what degree, before he's considered a menace to the game? Yet his teammates are lauding him, saying he's a "great guy" to know. Teammate Ruslan Fedotenko, whom as a member of the Tampa Bay Ligthning Simon cross-checked and jumped on (Simon received a two-game suspension for his antics), said,
"When you play against somebody you have an image in your mind what kind of person that is. ... "When I've experienced him as a teammate, I think he was a great person and really calm.
"A nice, nice, nice guy." (Yahoo Sports)
Chris Simon probably is a nice guy- off the ice. If this were an isolated incident, I'd say 30 games and $292K were enough, that he should take some time off and enter counseling/treatment and that the NHL did the right thing. But this isn't an isolated incident, it's one in a long line of incidents that are becoming worse and worse. Just ask Clint Malarchuk what a razor-sharp skate blade can do to your career (and health).
On Frozen Blog had some interesting things to say about hockey and its pas de deux with violence (though I disagree with the suggestions Chris Simon should be thrown out of the league simply because he doesn't put up good numbers, some things (like leadership, heart) can't be measured solely in statistics) but the fact of the matter is that hockey (and a number of other sports) are not only physical, but are violent. But at what point will the NHL recognize that a violent act (yes, the ones that bring delighted ooh's and ahh's from the audience (including myself): the in-the-corner hip check, open-ice body check, a fight,) is worlds away from a malicious one that horrifies the hockey world (stomping on the back of a guy's leg while he's down)? Sure, things like boarding and kneeing straddle that fine line of violent versus malicious, but I hope Colin Campbell wakes up and throws Chris Simon out of the league before he kills someone.
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