4/18 - Ratto Report

I’m Ray Ratto, and this is a minute about the new hockey violence.

There, you thought you could change the station when I said “hockey,” but I pulled you back in with “violence.” That’s what defines a pro.

As opposed to what the Stanley Cup Playoffs are presenting us with – namely a violence that makes a fist fight seem noble by comparison.

Raffi Torres of Phoenix left his feet and drilled Marian Hossa in the head last night And then he called it “a hockey hit.”

Well, no, it was a head shot, and there have been way more of those in the playoffs than actual throwing-hands-fights where both guys are actually looking at each and intending the same level of harm.

And no, we’re not defending fighting. But clocking a guy in the head unprovoked is worse, way worse, and it hasn’t stopped because the NHL hasn’t handed out the kind of hang-‘em-high punishments to the miscreants and their teams that get them to stop.

Like a full series, with the team playing with one fewer player for the duration of the suspension. Because fines are one thing, but peer pressure’s another, and the best deterrent to a guy who wants to deliver a head-shot is the fear that his teammates will deliver a bunch on him.