It would appear that there are two different standards for discipline in the NHL, one for superstar players and one for the less talented majority. At the end of Game 1 against Detroit, Shea Weber grabbed Henrik Zetterberg by the back of the neck and slammed his head into the glass, hard enough to crack his helmet. In this new era of concussion awareness and bring down the hammer on headshots, Shea Weber received no suspension, and a fine roughly equal to one shift worth of salary. Had his name been Byron Bitz, Aaron Rome, or Raffi Torres; he'd have been given 2-4 games. Jeremy Roenick certainly thought this infraction was worthy of supplemental discipline:
As a Red Wings fan myself, I'm quite disappointed that Mike Babcock did not get more upset about this. His team just lost the game, one of his best players just got hit with a wrestling move, and you need to rally your team around this incident. One of the ESPN guys was joking about what we'll see next, perhaps getting a metal folding chair out of the stands and hitting your opponent over the back of the head. When Torres knocked out Seabrook, Chicago turned their series around. When Rome knocked out Horton, the Bruins immediately turned the series around. Why? Because they became angry and channeled their anger into energy.
I'm not suggesting that they send Todd Bertuzzi out for a pound of flesh, but show some emotion man! You'd think having Bertuzzi on the roster would deter others from cheap shots on Red Wing players. Will they unleash the Kraken? That's not going to happen. Perhaps a 4th liner on the Philadelphia Flyers will look at the Weber "punishment" and decide it is worth less than a game's pay to smash Sidney Crosby's head into the glass, or maybe another WWF move like climbing to the top of the glass and doing a flying elbow? Pile-drivers? Sleeper holds? I'm just throwing out ideas Shea...
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