Was a five-game suspension a good call for Joe Veleno
Team Canada’s Joe Veleno is facing a five-game suspension in the World Hockey Championship, as announced on May 21st. During a play against the boards, Veleno presented a “stomping motion” on the ankle of Swiss opponent Nino Niederreiter. As stated by the 2023 Disciplinary Board, this violated Official Playing Rule 49, which refers to the motion of kicking to move a puck or contact another player. After the initial play, Niederreiter came after Veleno and ended up getting a two-minute roughing penalty, while Veleno did not get penalized.
Joe Veleno is a 23-year-old forward from Quebec currently playing for the Detroit Red Wings. This past season Veleno put up only 20 points in 81 games. Due to his actions at the World Hockey Championships, he is receiving lots of backlash throughout social media and is currently one of the most frowned upon players because of his “Disgusting Play,” as many people are calling it.
In 2008, Chris Pronger was issued an eight-game suspension for a play very similar to this one. Pronger was seen stomping on the calf of Ryan Kesler after Kesler had fallen down after a play behind the net. More recently, Zack Kassian - an Edmonton Oiler at the time- was also seen violating Rule 49 in a game against the Tampa Bay Lighting in 2020. Kassian was down on the ice with two other players, where he was attempting to push Erik Cernak off of him by kicking him in the chest. This resulted in Kassian being suspended for seven games without pay. In all of these cases, nobody was injured as a result of these kicking motions, so why are hockey leagues issuing these multi-game suspensions? Even though these players were not hurt in the play, they were still put in danger of potentially being injured. “...any player that intentionally uses the blade of his skate to contact an opponent, no matter the amount of force being used, is putting his opponent in immediate risk of serious injury,” the NHL stated in their ruling in 2020 when Kassian got suspended.
Whenever a skate blade makes contact with a player, it has the potential to be a very scary scene. In November 2022, Evander Kane got his wrist sliced open by Lightning forward Pat Maroon, which resulted in him rushing off of the ice, leaving a long trail of blood. Kane was out for months while he rehabilitated his wrist, and there were many talks about if he would still have the same skill he did before his injury. “This is why fighting in Hockey is needed. It discourages ideas like this and helps police the game effectively. Disgusting play to watch. Especially after my injury this year. Embarrassing” Evander Kane tweeted this on May 20th following Veleno’s incident.
After looking into suspensions in the NHL, it looks like Veleno may have gotten off easy with only five games, but the IIHF may discipline differently. Rule 49 is one that hockey leagues take very seriously. Do you think a five-game suspension was a good consequence for Veleno’s actions while representing Team Canada?