from Scott Burnside of ESPN,

Given the ongoing train wreck that is the NFL and its mishandling of issues, it's natural to look to other leagues and wonder how they deal with these kinds of issues and what kinds of safeguards are in place.

This isn't about smugness or suggesting that the NHL is immune to these problems.

The NHL has more than 700 players. There are another, what, 400 to 500, coaches, GMs and other executives related to hockey operations. It is a small town. Stuff happens in small towns. People get sick. They commit a range of criminal acts. They drink too much. Some do drugs. And, of course, there are domestic issues.

That is life and no one is suggesting that life doesn't take place in the National Hockey League.

But if there is a way to explain why the league's discipline issues have been for the most part restricted to on-ice behavior, perhaps it's in the fact that the league's policies governing personal behavior have been drawn up with and are administered jointly by the players themselves through the National Hockey League Players' Association and the league itself.

The number of domestic-related issues are so small both historically and within the recent past that it is difficult to suggest any real trends regarding the problem as it relates to NHL players, deputy commissioner Bill Daly told ESPN.com. Exactly why the number is so small could be related to a variety of factors.

more