Brendan Shanahan never won the Lady Byng Trophy, awarded to an NHL star exhibiting sportsmanship and gentlemanly play.
He was suspended five times during his 21-year, Hall of Fame-bound career.
Shanahan was even suspended for a cross-check he delivered in his Detroit debut. Hi and bye all at once.
For the most part, Shanahan knows he merited his punishments.
“I certainly did some things that deserved suspensions and certainly did some things I wanted to take back,” Shanahan said. “Sometimes with the passion and the speed of the game, things happen. That experience has taught me that I do believe players have respect for one another. Sometimes it’s just the environment of the game, and how things can get away from people a little bit.”
This season, that reasoning sounds like a perfect defense for an accused player about to plead his case to Shanahan.
Shanahan is judge and jury of his former peers in his first year as the NHL’s head disciplinarian, reviewing cases of the scores of rule-breaking players who aim for the head or commit various other infractions. His grace period in his new job lasted about as long as a power-play shift.
He’s become the stern-faced spokesman for the NHL rule book, suspending
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