Faceoff Violence: Carcillo Was Warned; Will Cammalleri Be Suspended?

On Thursday, the NHL suspended Flyers forward Daniel Carcillo for his actions in the closing seconds of Pittsburgh's 4-1 win on Wednesday night. It was part of a somewhat embarrassing end to the game, as the Flyers racked up 23 penalty minutes in just 19 seconds.

Carcillo admitted that the official dropping the puck warned him not to try anything.

Here's what Carcillo had to say, via Shelly Anderson of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:

"The ref came up to me and said not to do anything, so it would be pretty dumb for me to go out there and butt-end somebody in the head, which I didn't do," he said. "I knew the refs were looking. I just clipped him and he went down."

Carcillo also admitted that one of the angles is "not very flattering," and that he did hit Penguins center Max Talbot with his hand. Prior to the postseason, the NHL warned general managers and coaches that it would not tolerate "message sending" late in games. It's worth mentioning that this scenario played out with the Flyers on a penalty kill and Carcillo taking the faceoff. Why is this relevant? Well, during the regular season Carcillo logged exactly three minutes of ice-time on the penalty kill, and took 20 faceoffs. He was out there for a reason.

The great Philadelphia sports site, The 700 Level, talked about the supposed "double standard" constantly facing the Flyers, compared to the other 29 teams in the league. They cited the ending of Thursday's Boston-Montreal game and the shenanigans that took place there -- including Mike Komisarek allegedly poking Matt Hunwick in the eye -- while also bringing up the number of suspensions the Flyers were issued as a team a season ago.

Just last season, five Flyers' players were suspended by the NHL. Steve Downie, Jessie Boulerice, Randy Jones, Scott Hartnell, and Riley Cote all saw significant fines and lost games. It was a point brought up by opposing teams for the rest of the year, anytime something marginally illegal happened. It was Michel Therrien's calling card after his own team acquired Georges Laraque, ran Biron and boarded Steve Downie. Some of those suspensions were valid, and some were a bit excessive. But it begs the question, "Are the Flyers still being punished for reputations of the franchise?"

Are they being punished for the reputation of the franchise? Doubtful. I think it has more to do with the fact they've acquired/drafted guys like Steve Downie (traded to Tampa Bay earlier this season), Riley Cote and Daniel Carcillo. In the case of Carcillo, the Flyers knew exactly what they were getting when they gave up an actual hockey player with some skill -- Scottie Upshall -- to acquire him at the trade deadline in early March. He's one of the most penalized, undisciplined players in the league, and has been since he cracked the Coyotes lineup in 2006.

Phil Sheridan of the Philadelphia Inquirer wasn't exactly shedding any tears for the Flyers in his Friday column, saying "instead of putting on their blank faces and explaining stupid penalties, the Flyers might try actually changing their behavior. It's worth a try."

Now, having said all of that, will the Flyers have a legitimate gripe when the NHL doesn't do anything about Mike Cammalleri's actions in Thursday's game against Chicago? Observe:



NHL discipline czar Colin Campball appeared on NHL radio Friday afternoon and had this to say: "I don't want to filter everything out, but we want to filter the crazy things out ... When teams start to send messages, there's different ways to do it, but you can cross the line. When Cammalleri hit Havlat last night, there was a lot of risk to doing that. He took a two-minute penalty in a game that there could have been ramifications for doing that, but there's no ramifications when you're losing 4-1 with six seconds left."

So, basically, if you're going to clock somebody over the head, it's best to do it when you're tied, 1-1, in the third period as opposed to when you're down, 4-1, with six seconds to play.

Is it a double standard? I don't think so. Flawed logic is more like it. Carcillo is being suspended -- and head coach John Stevens is being fined -- because he was "sending a message" late in a game that was already decided. The league said it wouldn't tolerate such actions, and is sending a message of its own that nonsense like this has no place in the game.

While I understand the differences in the two situations (Carcillo was sent on the ice specifically to do something stupid -- and if you deny that you're just sticking your fingers and your ears and screaming "la-la-la" -- while Cammalleri was simply an idiot off a random faceoff in the third period) the bottom line is two guys belted an opponent over the head, while only one will be suspended for it. Both players should be taking a night off.