A clueless NHL fines the Rangers $250k for a tweet

The New York Rangers were hit with a hefty $250,000 fine for sending that tweet critical of the lack of a suspension for Tom Wilson.  In their statement, the NHL was firm in their rejection of the Rangers’ condemnation of George Parros of the Department of Player Safety.

"“Public comments of the nature issued by the Rangers that were personal in nature and demeaning of a League executive will not be tolerate.  While we don’t expect our Clubs to agree with every decision rendered by the Department of Player Safety, the extent to which the Rangers expressed their disagreement was unacceptable. It is terribly unfair to question George Parros’ professionalism and dedication to his role and the Department of Player Safety.”NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman."

Here’s the tweet about the fine from the NHL.

So, the NHL is willing to fine a team a quarter of a million dollars for a tweet, but is not willing to take action when a player goes berserk on the ice and injures opposing players.

It’s a big fine, but the NHL has been pretty tough when it comes to policing their teams.  Earlier this season the Washington Capitals were fined $100k for COVID-19 policy violations.  In 2012, the league fined the Detroit Red Wings $250k for negative comments about the lockout.

This won’t sit well with owner James Dolan who is thought to be responsible for the tweet and its contents.  It was unlikely that John Davidson would go so far in a public statement in calling out an NHL executive as incompetent.

The league has its head in the sand

The NHL has descended to new levels over the Tom Wilson incident.  They are studiously trying to make believe that the whole thing never happened from the original incident to the Rangers’ reaction in the game last night.

Here is the official NHL highlight video from last night’s game.  It runs almost nine minutes and they do show the fisticuffs after the opening faceoff.  Yes, they show it for all of two seconds.  They don’t show anything else.

Compare that to the highlights of the game on the Sportsnet’s Youtube site.   Their highlight video is 7:50 minutes long an they devote the first three minutes to the fights at the beginning of the game.

One reason the NHL chose to not include the highlight is the NBC announcers were very vocal in their opinion that if Tom Wilson had been suspended for at least one game, none of the fisticuffs would have happened.

In the NHL’s official release recapping the action last night, here is the description of the game:

"OSHIE SCORES HAT TRICK IN FIRST GAME SINCE PASSING OF HIS FATHERIn the first game since the passing of his father, Tim “Coach” Oshie, an emotional T.J. Oshie scored his fourth career hat trick and first since March 18, 2017 to help the Capitals (34-14-5, 73 points) climb back into first place in the MassMutual East Division."

No mention the fact that they set an NHL record for the most fights in the first five minutes of a game and the 141 minutes in combined penalty minutes was the most in the NHL in years and it was the first time since November 2017 that two teams had combined for 100 penalty minutes in a single period.

If you read Dan Rosen’s account of the game, note that he didn’t mention the violence until the 17th paragraph in the story.  Rosen is one of the best hockey writers in the business, but don’t forget that he works for the National Hockey League and not a news organization.

Oh yes, Pavel Buchnevich is getting a hearing with the Department of Player Safety for his cross check to Anthony Mantha.  The nhl.com article about that was 88 words long.  The nhl.com article about the Tom Wilson fine was 80 words long.

If you were curious, this was how Rosen’s story on Monday described the Tom Wilson “altercation.”

Rangers forward Artemi Panarin didn’t return for the third period because of a lower-body injury. He was thrown to the ice during a post-whistle altercation near the Capitals net at 7:40 of the second period that resulted in Washington forward Tom Wilson getting a double-minor for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct.

Panarin and Rangers forward Pavel Buchnevich also received roughing minors, as did Capitals defenseman Brenden Dillon.

So, if anyone thinks that nhl.com is not a house organ, think again. The same goes for the NHL Network.