http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUMBf5B5XcY

The NHL announced its latest suspension. The guilty party was Penguins defenseman Deryk Engelland. In the Pens’ win over the Red Wings Saturday 12/14, he made an illegal check to the head on Detroit forward Justin Abdelkader.

Engelland was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct. The appropriate ruling for such a irresponsible hit. It was a battle for a loose puck with both players reaching when Engelland decided to level a prone Abdelkader with a right shoulder making contact with the head. Abdelkader suffered an injury and did not return. He’s listed as day-to-day.

As noted during the video, Engelland is a repeat offender also getting suspended three games for a similar incident. It was an easy call for the NHL. At the very least, that’s one less tough Penguin the Rangers have to worry about.

However, that’s not the main focus. It’s the continued incidents we are seeing throughout the league leading to major discipline that has been a constant negative. Capitals forward Tom Wilson has a phone hearing with the Department of Player Safety tomorrow after receiving a charging major and game ejection during Tuesday’s game at the Flyers. He came at Brayden Schenn with excessive speed sending him flying into the boards. Schenn turned into it which didn’t help. However, there was enough time for Wilson to let up.

In a tweet session with Jamie McLennan, he emphasized that there are too many instances like this where players are disrespecting each other. However, he also told me that victims are sometimes putting themselves in vulnerable positions. Since they took the red line out combined with the quasi Brodeur rule and tag up offsides, it’s resulted in more collisions and injuries.

Perhaps it’s time for the NHL and NHLPA to reassess the rule changes. They’re so busy tweaking it for more offense that they’ve overlooked player safety. Many of these incidents could be avoided if they put the red line back in. The game is too fast.