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McSorley, NHL on trial
The trial the National Hockey League hoped would never happen opens in Vancouver on Monday. Marty McSorley, the NHL's third all-time leader in penalty minutes, faces a charge with assault with a weapon. Most of his 3,381 penalty minutes came by dropping the gloves and fighting other heavyweights throughout his 17-year career, but McSorley's fists weren't the weapon of choice this time. His stick was. With 2.7 seconds left on the clock in a game between Boston and Vancouver, and his Bruins losing 5-2, McSorley sought out Canucks defenseman Donald Brashear like a driver with road rage. McSorley chopped Brashear on the right temple with his stick. Brashear crumpled to the ice,twitching, with blood flowing from his nose. He was unconscious and was taken off the ice on a stretcher. He suffered a Grade 3 concussion. The ugly and vicious act was captured by television cameras before thousands of stunned fans at GM Place in Vancouver, and soon the type of publicity that the NHL doesn't need was seen on highlight reels around the world. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman acted swiftly and suspended McSorley indefinitely. While Bettman thought the punishment fit the crime, the Crown prosecutor's office in Vancouver thought otherwise. An investigation -- which included an interview with Brashear and not McSorley -- produced the charge of assault. If convicted, McSorley faces a maximum of 18 months in jail. That's the simple way to look at the trial. But in the court of public opinion, there's more at stake. While the NHL doesn't like it, the NHL is on trial. Hockey violence -- the gratuitous elbows to the head, sticks to the face, slashes across the hands and chops to the liver -- is under scrutiny. Marty McSorley is a prop. Let's face it. If I walked down the quiet street, swung a stick at someone's head and connected, I would be led away in handcuffs and charged. I'd go to trial and take my chances. There would be no outcry. People accept this as a part of democracy. That's how it works in the public arena. But because it happened in an NHL rink, isn't that a different arena? If a hockey player hits someone, or chops an opponent, isn't that part of the game? That's why referee calls penalties and in the worst scenarios, the accused are brought before the NHL's judge and jury, and justice is dispensed. Bettman handed McSorley the stiffest ban ever for an on-ice incident, and the league hoped the banishment was the last to be heard on the matter.
Now the court will decide whether there is a difference between punishment and justice. One one hand, McSorley's trial boils down to this: To what extent can violence, which is inherent to organized sport, be considered criminal behavior? Hockey is unique in that a certain level of violence is tolerated and the players consent to a certain level of violence (i.e. implied consent) and consent is usually considered a defense to an assault charge. Was McSorley's hit within the scope of implied consent? McSorley's defense will likely be two-fold. First, you can almost be assured the court will be told the hit to the head was an accident, that McSorley swung his stick at Brashear's shoulder to get his attention and for whatever reason, he missed. The second part of his defense likely will focus on culture of the hockey, which is the only pro sport of the big four that allows fighting. It will be said that, no matter what, it happened in the heat of a hockey match and as such cannot be subject to the norms of society. McSorley's defense team probably will play, for the court, a videotape that demonstrates that stick work happens and often goes unpunished or sometimes dealt with lightly. The case that comes to mind is the vicious check to the head of Paul Kariya that put him out of the 1998 Winter Olympics, nearly cost him his career, and amounted to a four-game suspension for Gary Suter. This suggests that despite the fact the public wishes players did not use their sticks in this fashion, it is an accepted risk of the game. While there is no question McSorley stepped over the line, the bigger issue is: Should the Canadian legal system -- or any legal system for that matter -- be involved? Or is this something that should be left to the NHL to police? A few weeks after McSorley shamed the NHL, Scott Niedermayer of the New Jersey Devils struck Peter Worrell of the Florida Panthers on the head and was suspended for 10 games. There was no police investigation and no complaint was filed with police in East Rutherford, N.J., that could have prompted one. For what it is worth, McSorley is the 14th player in the history of the NHL and the defunct World Hockey Association to face criminal charges for an on-ice incident. The last NHLer to appear in a courtroom was Dino Ciccarelli of the Minnesota North Stars, who in 1988 was charged after he clubbed Toronto defenseman Luke Richardson on the head with his stick. Ciccarelli was found guilty and served one day in jail. He spent most of the time behind bars signing autographs. The hockey world is anxious to see what happens to McSorley. Alan Adams covers hockey for the National Post in Toronto and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
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