Going on precedence, for example the
open-ice hit on Nathan Horton in game 3 of the Stanley Cup final last year, Keith's hit should warrant ten, or more. After all, consider the circumstances: the league has been through nearly a full regular season in which new-head disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan has worked to get this exact hit out of the game. Keith apparently did not get those two dozen memos that Shanahan has sent across his desk, and the desk of every other player in the NHL.
Aaron Rome hit on Nathan Horton
And consider the fact Aaron Rome, who'd hit Horton, was given four games in the Stanley Cup final, with playoff games being equated with two in the regular season. That hit was an open-ice hit where Horton had just passed the puck and the big crime of Rome's was not intent and nor was his elbow used and nor was the principal point of contact the head; no the crime was that Horton hit his head on the ice when he fell - something Rome could not have controlled.
That of course wasn't all Rome had done. He hit a player on a team in the final Colin Campbell's
son played on and the draconian suspension was handed down by Mike Murphy, Campbell's friend and long-time work mate. But that's another story and if the Canucks were to gripe about it could land them in trouble with the league. But four games in the final for an open-ice hit, no charge on the play, leads one to believe that in a fair hockey world, with 7 Chicago games left in the regular season, Keith won't see the ice again until multiple games into the playoffs.
Duncan Keith channels Matt Cooke
This hit was bad. Keith took a lengthy run at Sedin after the puck had taken an odd and extremely high bounce and was somewhere up near the rafters, not in possession of anyone, let alone Daniel Sedin, who hadn't been near it at any point on the play. The principal point of contact was the head and Keith intentionally stuck out his elbow and aimed right for Sedin's noggin.
It was so bad the people at Webster's should add it to their online dictionary, so that if you looked up 'vicious hockey elbow to the head' you'd get a link to this hit along with one of Matt Cooke nailing Marc Savard in 2009, the one that knocked Savard out of hockey (and that, astonishingly, Colin Campbell didn't suspend Cooke for). The hit by Keith was of that kind and if Sedin
misses the rest of the season - he's left the team for medical evaluation - and playoffs the NHL should consider further punishment.
Hits to the head should be eliminated
After the game, Keith said that he would "have to look at the tape" on the hit to see exactly what he'd done. That's like Barry Bonds saying he'd need to look at an empty prescription bottle to see if he'd taken steroids. Duncan Keith knew what he was doing, what he intended to do, and it's a poster for what hockey does not need, a perfect example of the worst kind of head shot that Shanahan has said - and fans have said - must come out of the game.
Ten should be a starting point, the sky should be the limit.
