Since it’s Wednesday morning and Jack Capuano is still going on about Brian Boyle’s hit on Thomas Hickey, it’s worth remembering something.
Capuano said Boyle's hit on Hickey was "direct shot to head." Thinks Boyle should be suspended. "Type of hit we're trying to take out game."
— Brett Cyrgalis (@BrettCyrgalis) May 4, 2016
Capuano on Boyle-Hickey hit: "I just feel like the hit was high. ... I'm going to stand by what I said."
— Nick Cotsonika (@cotsonika) May 4, 2016
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Yes, Boyle’s hit was illegal. Yes, it should’ve been a penalty. Yes, it probably determined the outcome of the game, which the Lightning won on a goal from Boyle about 50 seconds later. That sucks for Capuano and the Islanders. Condolences there.
The much discussed Brian Boyle hit on Thomas Hickey from two angles https://t.co/l8wgdiXjnz
— The Cauldron (ICYMI) (@CauldronICYMI) May 4, 2016
It was a basic interference call, though; Boyle certainly didn’t make Hickey’s head the principle point of contact, he didn’t leave his feet, and it wasn’t egregiously late.
It’s not, though, the Department of Player Safety’s job to overcorrect and make up for missed calls. Some bad hits, believe it or not, are only bad enough to deserve penalties. Not everything deserves a suspension.
Brooks Orpik deserved a suspension for his hit on Olli Maatta; it was crazy late and injured Maatta because it caught him in the face. Kris Letang deserved a suspension for his hit on Marcus Johansson; Letang was late, though not as late as Orpik, and caught Johansson’s face, though not as much as Orpik caught Maatta’s.
That’s why Letang got one game and Orpik got three. There are varying degrees of illegal hits. Boyle’s hit roughly as late as Letang’s, and less to the face. It wasn’t suspendable. It was a missed call.
And that’s where Capuano’s frustration should lie. An official had a clear view of the hit and opted not to blow his whistle. He made a mistake — in a perfect world, he’d have thought about calling it an interference major — but it’s not up to the DoPs to fix it.
(It should also be noted that Islanders should show some self-awareness for when they want officials to swallow their whistles. They directly benefited from a horrendous non-call last round. You either want a tight game or you don't. You can't decide based on how it'd benefit your team — or at least you shouldn't)
Really, it’s an interesting case; with the rush to call for supplementary discipline, even rightfully, we might be losing sight of the fact that there’s a difference between a clean play and a suspendable one.
That’s the root of the NHL’s problem this time of the year. Officials, in a misguided attempt to let the players decide the game, start to ignore that it's their job to react when players decide to break the rules. That’s what the penalty box is for, and that’s where Boyle should’ve been after his hit on Hickey — not the press box for Game 5, no matter what Capuano says.