The Globe and Mail was the first site I came across with mention of the suspension handed to Jesse Boulerice: 25 games for a cross-check to the face of Ryan Kesler the other night.

Flyers GM Paul Holmgren said:

“I think we’re in agreement that there’s no place in the game for this anymore,” Holmgren said. “I do think it was an isolated incident. Jesse lost his composure, lost his cool. It’s something that’s not the right thing to do, at any time.”

No one expected that Holmgren would be pleading for leniency in this case, and he certainly didn’t. He knows, as well as anyone, that there’s no call for cheap shots like this in the NHL.

Hopefully this will be the last of these incidents for the balance of the season.

There’s nothing really positive to say about last night’s game other than it’s good to get games like that out of the way VERY early in the season, and thank God I don’t subscribe to the PPV games. I’d be wanting my money back from the team personally.

Anyway, they sucked last night, and it’s best just to move on and focus on the Oilers tomorrow night.

But that’s not what I wanted to talk about. It’s Jesse Boulerice’s hit on Ryan Kesler. There’s enough footage of it around that there’s no reason to link to it. I wrote previously on my thoughts on what the NHL should do with headhunters. Based on what I proposed, Boulerice should be getting 30 games. That’s not going to happen, for a few reasons: It wasn’t as spectacular a hit as Downie’s on McAmmond;, and Kesler didn’t leave the ice on a stretcher. Regardless.

According to the A.P., “Boulerice said he was sorry for the hit. “I reacted in a bad way the wrong way,’’ he said. Gee, ya think? Regardless of what Boulerice might try to say, he’s not sorry about what happened. He was assessed a match penalty. For deliberate attempt to injure. It’s quite simple. You can’t “accidentally” cross-check someone. It’s a deliberate act. After Kesler hit the ice, Boulerice started to drop his gloves, before being pushed out of the way by the official.

So he at least gives the appearance that he’d have been willing to fight. After trying to break Kesler’s jaw first, of course.

Suspend him. Good riddance. He’s not worth discussing again.

Thoughts from the bench:

• Japer’s Rink: Another Week, Another Flyer Cheap Shot
• Kukla’s Korner: Flyers’ Boulerice Expects Suspension
• James Mirtle: Bouerice Facing Suspension
• Canucks Hockey Blog
• Waiting for Stanley: Disgrace: Flyers 8 Canucks 2

And the pressbox:

• Not Worst Ever, But Close: Tony Gallagher, The Province
• Boulerice Expects Suspension: TSN

Philadelphia’s Steve Downie was handed a 20-game suspension today for his hit on Ottawa’s Dean McAmmond, which is probably about right for this type of cheap shot.  It’s the fifth-longest suspension handed out by the NHL, but, hopefully there won’t be a potential problem as some others have speculated.

If Downie winds up getting cut by the Flyers and sent down to the AHL, there must be provisions put in place requiring him to sit out the full 20 games there as well.  If they just release him and then the AHL doesn’t honour the suspension, then it makes both leagues look incompetent.

Personally, I feel that the NHL has set the bar for headhunting suspensions, but they need to let the teams know that no headhunting will be permitted at all, and they could do it like this.  Downie serves a 20-game suspension.  The next hit like this (or a stick-swinging incident) by anyone results in a 30 game suspension.  The next one after that is 40 games, with suspensions carrying over into the playoffs and the next season if necessary.  The count would get reset at the start of the next season with the first incident being worth 20 games.

Obviously this whole thing would be extremely controversial, as someone getting a 40-game suspension could claim that "so and so only got 20 games for a much worse hit", and they might be right.  But the point is to get it across to the players that this kind of crap won’t be tolerated by the league. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for big open-ice hits, as long as they’re clean, and not head high, or trying to take someone’s knees out.  The kind of hit where someone’s sitting on the ice looking out the ear hole of his helmet wondering what the hell a tree is doing in the middle of the ice.  That’s fine.

But if something isn’t done to get hits like Downie’s out of the game, someone’s going to die on the ice in the next five years.