Watch this video of Mike Richards hitting David Booth

Mike Richard’s is tossed from the game, and will probably get a few games suspension for that hit.

Did he hit the guy late? No, Booth was admiring his pass, only about a second goes by. Did he hit him with his elbow? Nope. He hit him with his shoulder. This is almost a textbook clean hit, but, as we all know, the NHL isn’t quite sure what to do with itself on any given day.

They’re infamous for changing and altering rules for specific events, games, etc. Look at last years playoffs and all of the nonsense suspensions they handed out.

The NHL has absolutely no consistency with their own rules and they continue to struggle to find out what they want to be in life.

Need an example?

Watch this video of Scott Stevens delivering a very similar hit to Paul Kariya a few years back.

Almost identical, huh? So what’s the irony? Scott Stevens was hailed and promoted by the NHL because he delivered that type of hit often.

In just a few years, why such an attitude shift? Why take away good hard hits? I have my theories.

The number of European hockey players in the NHL continues to rise. Most of these players come from leagues where they play on Olympic sized ice surfaces and there is virtually no hitting and definitely no fighting.

Gary Bettman, the Commissioner of the NHL, wants his legacy to be the guy who made the NHL global with an expansion Conference in Europe.

Here’s a bright idea, focus on North America.

You had, what, 3,000 seats filled in Phoenix the other night, 6,000 in Atlanta, teams declaring bankruptcy, a television contract with the Game Show Network (to be fair, it’s really Versus) and you want to mold the game to make it more appealing to the European style of Hockey.

Can we stop this madness and get back to playing Hockey the way we play it?

Update: The NHL did not suspend Richards. They did the right thing, the referee on the ice made the wrong call. I would love for the NHL to keep proving me wrong!