NHL Releases Video Explaining Jody Shelley’s Five Game Suspension

Wow.

The NHL may be botching the Winter Classic announcement, but the league and its teams just get social media. Brendan Shanahan, the league’s disciplinarian, suspended Jody Shelley for the remainder of the preseason and five regular season games, thanks to this hit.

This might be the best use of web video ever by a sports league. The suspension is fair and the explanation is better. Mild ovation.

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12 Responses

  1. damn. the upper echelon of the NHL management system (with the exception of gary bettman) should run the MLB.

  2. I’m not a Shelley lover by any means, but a 10 game suspension is overkill whether half of the games are preseason or not. He didn’t hit him up high…all he did was board him, which I know they’re trying to remove from the game… but 10 games!! Jesus… overkill. Protect yourselves along the boards hockey players.

  3. Couldn’t he have suspended Shelley for the rest of his career? Would have done both the Flyers and the rest of the league some good.

  4. All sports should do this. It presents a great image and really shows that the league cares about keeping fans informed. Kudos to the NHL.

  5. Good work Shanahan- thank GOD Colin Campbell is out. HOPEFULLY, the NHL discipline will be a little more clear with Brendan at the helm.
    I love the explanation and hope they continue to do it throughout the season.
    No problem with the suspension- that’s a classic boarding penalty committed by a multiple time offender.
    Can you imagine if the NFL did this with their supplemental discipline? The Dunta Robinson situation might not have been blasted as much as it was.
    For the NHL being “behind” the other 3 major sports, they sure do a lot of the pioneering with changes/enhancements to their game. (First to use instant replay, first to announce discipline like this) Kudos, NHL.

  6. @JT i read a great article in ESPN the magazine(i believe) about how cutting edge the NHL is with new processes for league improvement. Now the article talked specifically about how they hold a once a year event with team and league officials to experiment with different aspects of the game. Some examples of their forward thinking were having fewer face off circles and moving them to the center of the rink(center and 1 in each zone) another involved having the line judges positioned off the ice in “tennis ref” style chairs to call offsides and the like… i cant remember some of the other ones, and i know the two above examples may be a bit goofy, but you have to applaud the NHL for being PROACTIVE and looking for ways to make the game better instead of being REACTIVE and waiting for an issue to arrive before they start searching for solutions. And that kind of forward thinking has spread to suspension/discipline updates… i really like it

  7. I agree with everyone agreeing that this is the way the NHL should announce suspensions at all times. I can go with what seemed like an overkill decision based on this.
    Now the true test is whether Mr. Shanahan(who I had much respect for as a player) can attempt to remain consistent or at least in the ballpark.

  8. Inconsistency already…
    Leblond is a known goon and all he got was a total of five games (4 preseason, 1 regular season) for this hit which is FAR more dangerous than Shelley’s hit.


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