Bench Him, Coach

editorial by Jas Faulkner, contributing editor

Shea Weber (Icon: SMI)

Last night my colleague, Jim Neveau, asked if Shea Weber should be disciplined for his hits on Henrik Zetterberg during the final minute of play in game one of Series H.

Do I think Weber needs to get a call from Shanahan?

No.

He should get a call from Barry Trotz this morning informing him that he is going to sit out the remainder of Series H of the Quarterfinals. The Predators Front Office can explain to Shanahan that they’re on it. That’s the way it should happen. Weber’s actions last night were unbecoming of a member of Nashville’s roster. For years, Barry Trotz and David Poile have said over and over again that putting together the Predators has been an exercise in building character, not finding characters.

This?

This is not the Nashville Predators I have cheered since 1997. This is not the team I have confidently written about as the Good Guys of the NHL. Good Guys don’t hit an opponent twice when the game has seconds left. If the situation had been reversed, if, say, Todd Bertuzzi (who is no stranger to bad behaviour on the ice) had punched Mike Fisher and then grabbed him and slammed him against the glass, there would be protests coming from Nashville, and rightly so. Some pundits have suggested that this is a chance for the NHL to show if they’re serious about enforcing the rules they have put in place to prevent head and spinal injuries on the ice.

The Predators organisation has always, ALWAYS held itself to a higher standard than the league in general. They need to continue to lead the league. Bench Shea Weber and send a message that this is about something bigger than one series. Nashville, bench him because you have enough talent on the ice to win without him. Let him come back for the semifinals and show Predsnation and beyond the hero we were glad to see wearing the captain’s sweater last summer.

16 thoughts on “Bench Him, Coach”

  1. Why do I feel like the two of you wandered in to the wrong sports bar?    Bee-HawksFTW, glad to read elsewhere that Hossa has been discharged from the hospital.  I hope he heals quickly. 

  2. Daniel, that is a wee bit draconian, don’t you think?  Also, the Preds Front Office would never go for it.  I did send a muffin basket to the coaching staff with a brochure about Siberian Outward Bound-type programs for problem players.  I don’t think they’ll consider it since the last time anyone on the NSH went to Russia it took a few years to get him back.  Something else to think about: Who would watch Shea’s beard while he was away?  Can you imagine some intern having to deal with the heart-rending howls it would emit waiting for Shea to return?

  3. This really is disturbing. The NHL and the Predator organization has failed hockey fans and hockey players.. How do you explain this to young players and fans. This is a very dangerous precedent.

  4. so why are we not mentioning the fact that zetterburg was kneeing weber and also stood on his foot with the blade of his skate…once again redwings don;t do anything wrong. whats up with that and what about the punch to Goustad’s face from bertuzzi the one who almost ended another players life and did end his career.. oh  yeah..he is a redwing and they do not wrong.
     

  5. Wow.  I’m not one for “LOL” and similar such shorthand, but this really did just make me laugh out loud.  I have no allegiance to either the Preds or Wings, but this suggestion is, in every sense of the word, laughable. 

  6. Lauren, I respectfully disagree.   The outcome could have been much worse.  What he did should not have happened at all.  I know it’s not up to me, but I would love to see the Predators take the cup without any shadow of a doubt that  they won it without playing dirty.

  7. I don’t think what he did was wrong, but he should still know what he did can’t happen again or the consequences could be more severe.

  8. There’s a part of me that is a little glad he’ll back his boys like that.  It’s the longtime fan part that still wants Nashville to win.  The part of me who loves hockey no matter what sweaters are out there wants to see Trotz and Poile do right by the game, the NHL, and future generations of young men who will end up playing professionally.

  9. If his comments after the game are any indication, I don’t even think Trotz believes what Weber did was wrong….

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