Three Games?

The Minnesota Wild will take the ice tonight down three games to one in their NHL playoffs series with the Anaheim Ducks. They will do so without their leading ice-time defenseman, Kim Johnsson, who was sucker-punched at the end of Tuesday\’s victory by noted bounty hunter Brad May.

Click here for a picture of the punch. While May has been non-committal in his quotes (\”That\’s the spirit of those things. … It\’s competitive out there. It\’s two good teams going at it, trying to win, trying to advance to the next round.\”), it\’s pretty clear that Johnsson has his gloves on, with no intention to fight, when he got punched.

Reports say that Johnsson will be out indefinitely, and there\’s reason for concern, since he has a history of concussions. For this, May was suspended… three games? That\’s it? Jordin Tootoo was given a five game suspension only one month ago for punching a defenseman who was coming to hit him, with his glove on! May gets an intent to injure penalty, and only gets three games?

Don\’t get me wrong here. I love hockey, and I think that fighting has a place in the game. But the NHL\’s enforcement of players who cross the line is a joke. I think if you get suspended for intent to injure, and you injure the player, you should be out for as long as the person you injured. Bertuzzi should be out of the league, and May should sit until Johnsson is healthy. If the league office isn\’t going to take care of these things properly, I think it\’s entirely possible that someone could be killed on-ice. And then you\’d really make SportsCenter in the wrong kind of way.