from Damien Cox of Sportsnet,

This, of course, is the offence-hating NHL in a nutshell. No other sport forces it’s skilled players to walk a nightly gauntlet of slashes, hacks, holds and intimidation like the good, old NHL. Every night, defence is given the edge in this and a variety of other ways, which is one reason scoring is at a historic low.

Now let’s be clear here. Kadri is no saint. He yaps. He’s been in trouble for giving the throat slashing gesture. He has strong opinions about his own ability. But he isn’t a suck. He takes on all comers. He fought the much bigger David Backes to start this season. He doesn’t look to teammates for protection.

But the NHL, in the way its officials are dealing with the Leaf forward, are not only sending mixed messages, they’re reinforcing the generally held belief that the rule book is whatever referees want it to be. They can not only apply it differently in the third period to the first, and on Monday in St. Louis versus Thursday in Ottawa, but that they also can, in essence, wage campaigns against certain players if they so choose.

We know that’s human nature. Fool me once and all that. Alex Burrows knows that story. But as Babcock said last March, fine, but enough’s enough.

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