For those who know about Chris Simon's past, this is nothing new. The 35-year old has served a total of six suspensions in his career already, all of which were the result from a horrible act he committed on unsuspecting opponents.
Previously, in my story about the Boulerice suspension, NHL Whackjobs! Hit Me Baby One More Time [1], I spoke in length about last year's infraction that Simon committed against New York Rangers' Ryan Hollweg.
Simon spent the first five games of the season serving out the remainder of his 25-game suspension, one of the league's longest suspensions in history. He's only been back on the ice for two months and is now facing another potential suspension when the league's disciplinarian, Colin Campbell, reviews the infraction against Ruutu.
Mind you, I am no fan of Ruutu. He is a bad boy, himself. His most legendary infraction occurred during the 2006 Winter Olympics when he did a powerful hit on Czech Republic's hero, Jaromir Jagr (a New York Ranger), which pushed Jagr's head between the boards and the glass, slicing open his head. It wasn't just the hit that angered fans. It was the smug look Ruutu had on his face when he sat down on the bench while Jagr lay on the ice bleeding profusely from his head. Luckily, Ruutu was ejected from the game.
Even though Ruutu is one of the bad guys in the NHL, it doesn't mean he deserved what Simon did to him. What Simon did was inexcusable. There is no need to deliberately injure an opponent, especially when your team is losing 3-2.
Charles Wang, team owner of the New York Islanders, offered the following statement: "The Islanders are going to provide some time for Chris away from the team and give him the counseling he needs and the compassion he deserves."
Now, if you are thinking what I am thinking the term "counseling" and "compassion" just doesn't seem to fit into the appropriate description of how to handle Simon and this incident. I believe a demotion should be in order from the team. For any NHLer, that is a swift kick where it's going to hurt to be demoted to the minors, especially when you are 35-years old and practically on your way to retirement.
Simon issued an apology (quite similar to the same apology he offered to Ryan Hollweg last season): "There is no excuse for my actions on Saturday night and I apologize to everyone involved." I have always held the firm belief that if you are truly sorry for your sins that you've committed against someone else, then you should never commit the act again. So Ryan...he really wasn't that sorry, so I don't blame you for not accepting his apology in the first place. He has a reputation and all of being truly insincere.
In 1997, Simon received a three-game ban after directing a racial slur toward Mike Grier, who is black. During the 2000 playoffs, Simon was forced to sit out Game 2 after he cross-checked Peter Popovic across the throat in the opener. In April 2001, he received a two-game ban for elbowing Anders Eriksson. In 2004, he was issued a couple of two-game suspensions. The first was for cross-checking Ruslan Fedotenko which he then followed up by jumping on him and punching him (Fedotenko is now his teammate on the NY Islanders). The second offense came when he kneed Sergei Zubov.
Considering Simon has only been able to play for two months in the NHL since his last infraction, a life-long ban should be taken into consideration. Campbell once said that they take under consideration the player's past acts in the NHL. Hopefully this latest infraction will warrant the disciplinarian to think about taking more of a drastic means to an end to Simon's ways.
The Islanders were too nice in issuing their form of discipline on Simon. Their solution fell more into the arms of Simon being the one that is the victim and needs help. From what everyone else has seen, it's Simon victimizing other people! That is and has always been his style of play. That is what the Islanders pay him to do. Why else would they sign him to another one-year contract while he was still under suspension for his seriously illegal hit on Hollweg?
This question really makes me want to reconsider the title of this article rant. Who is more stupid...The Islanders or Chris Simon?
To view a couple of Simon's past nasty deeds:
Chris Simon's Stomp on Jarkko Ruutu [2]
