Jets perplexed by NHL’s puzzling punishment system By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 4:50 PM CST Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024

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This article was published 08/02/2024 (950 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PHILADELPHIA — Brenden Dillon was in no mood to talk Thursday morning. But we couldn’t help but notice, as the veteran Winnipeg Jets defenceman skated alone at one end of the ice at Wells Fargo Centre, he appeared to be putting a little extra muscle into the one-timer shots he was taking as associate coach Scott Arniel fed him passes.

Channelling a bit of anger, perhaps?

Dillon will have plenty of time to quietly work on his shot in the coming days as he serves a three-game suspension — a penalty that has he and the Jets fuming, at least privately.

“You’re going down the wrong road with me here,” Arniel told the Free Press with a smirk, when asked if he wished to weigh in. “Too big of a fine.”

It’s not so much the sentence itself handed down by the NHL’s department of player safety for Dillon’s dangerous check to the head of Pittsburgh Penguins forward Noel Acciari, although the Jets felt it deserved no more than a game or two.

No, it’s more what they view as a wildly inconsistent pattern displayed by George Parros, a former enforcer who now serves as the league’s judge, jury and executioner.

Where exactly does Winnipeg believe it’s been wronged? Let us count the ways.

At the very top of the list would be Anaheim Ducks forward Ryan Strome’s dirty knee-on-knee hit in December that took top scorer Kyle Connor out of the lineup for five weeks. Referees assessed a five-minute major on the play, which was upheld on video review. Once the game ended, it was nothing but crickets from the NHL.

No hearing. No suspension. Not even a fine, despite the massive loss to Winnipeg.

“I respectfully disagree with the league,” coach Rick Bowness said at the time. “I still think it’s a suspendable offence. I felt it then, I’ve looked at it a number of times and I still feel that way.”

As long-time NHL referee Dave Jackson told the Free Press, he believes the league ultimately viewed it as a “reckless hockey play gone bad versus a malicious attempt to take his knee out.”

The Jets are now wondering why that same kind of logic wasn’t applied to Dillon, who had every right to step into Acciari as he carried the puck through the neutral zone. The fact the much smaller Acciari was bent over at the time didn’t help matters either as Dillon made contact.

Here’s how veteran NHL writer and broadcaster Mark Spector, who is based out of Edmonton, summarized the play in a social media post.

“You’re going down the wrong road with me here. Too big of a fine.”–Coach Scott Arniel

“Hockey Physics: When a 5-foot-9 player (Acciari) chooses to carry the puck — and thus lower his head — through two zones without ever looking up, and a 6-4 D-man (Dillon) is paid to impede his progress, head contact ensues. Acciari should change his game, not Dillon, IMO.”

Arniel noted that Dillon, who has been in the league since 2012 and played 863 games with only one prior suspension (in 2017 for slashing), “did a lot of correct things” when stepping into his opponent, who left the game with a suspected concussion that wasn’t helped by falling face first to the ice.

“There was no chicken wing (elbow) or leaving your feet,” he said.

“You know the league is cracking down on that kind of stuff. We expected there was going to be some kind of decision but we were hoping it wasn’t going to be three (games). You have to live with it. Once a decision comes down, there’s not much you can do. We just have to move on.”

In deciding not to punish Strome, the NHL likely considered the Ducks lost an impact player for 2/3 of the game with the ejection and chalked it up to “time served,” Jackson said.

The Jets hoped a similar approach might be taken here. After all, not only were they forced to play the majority of the game with just five defencemen, but Pittsburgh scored two goals on the ensuing five-minute power play en route to an eventual 3-0 victory.

There have been other incidents this year piling up on Winnipeg’s list of grievances.

Gabe Vilardi was knocked out of the lineup for more than six weeks after Los Angeles Kings forward Blake Lizotte took him out with a dangerous trip that resulted in a two-minute penalty but no further sanctions.

Josh Morrissey had to enter concussion protocol — fortunately, he cleared it rather quickly — after Edmonton Oilers winger Mattias Janmark drilled him with a blind-side hit that was completely missed by officials during the game. Janmark was then given a free pass after the fact.

And who can forget the Ryan Hartman and Cole Perfetti incident from last month, in which the Minnesota Wild veteran high-sticked the young Winnipeg forward in the face — then got caught on a hot mic admitting it was an intentional act as retribution for Dillon’s uncalled cross-check that had injured Kirill Kaprizov the previous game.

“Once a decision comes down, there’s not much you can do. We just have to move on.”–Coach Scott Arniel

Hartman was fined by the league, but the Jets felt a more serious penalty was warranted.

“You’d like to see… you have your own opinion on it as a team, that you’d like to see things done. But it is what it is,” Arniel said when asked if there’s a consistency issue at play.

Dillon will miss Thursday’s matchup with the Flyers and will also be out for the rematch with the Penguins on Saturday and next Wednesday’s game against the San Jose Sharks. He’s eligible to return on Feb. 17 when the Jets head to Vancouver to battle the Canucks.

Dillon, 33, is having a terrific year for the NHL’s best defensive team. He has matched a career high in goals (six) and, with 15 points through 48 games, is on track to beat his career high of 23. It’s coming at a good time, too, as he is in the final year of his deal that pays him US$3.9 million.

The pending unrestricted free agent has repeatedly said he’d love to re-sign with the Jets but told the Free Press earlier this week that no talks have occurred with the organization so far. He switched player agents a few weeks ago, saying he hopes the process might get kick-started sooner than later.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg