The Calgary Sun · Feb 4, 2016
NHL got it right with 20-game ban for Flames defenceman
Colin Campbell and the NHL got it right this time.
You simply can’t hit an official.
It doesn’t matter if you are dinged, dazed, dazzled or just dumb — you are responsible for your own actions.
Dennis Wideman’s crosscheck to the back of linesman Don Henderson deserves the 20 games Campbell handed him Wednesday — the longest abuse-of-an-official suspension since Tom Lysiak deliberately tripped a linesman after a faceoff in 1983.
As a reference point, look no further than the Dan Carcillo suspension in 2014, which landed him a 10-game expulsion in the playoffs, later reduced to six games.