The NHL playoffs are a thing of beauty - brutal, bone-grinding beauty, of course, but beauty nonetheless.
Tuesday night, for instance, watching as the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues raced around the ice, pelting one another with elbows, legs, sticks, shots, trading blows - even Corey Crawford got in on the action - the entire scene swirling and flowing, the ice tilting one way only to violently shift the other direction, the two sides, in short, playing hockey the way it's meant to be played, was the NHL fan's equivalent of a trip to the MET, of taking in the work of a well-trained artist. The playoffs are meant to be the game at its finest - two supremely talented teams vying for an outcome that only one can secure.
But on Tuesday, with ugly play and even uglier anger, two players did the game, and themselves, a disservice.
UPDATE: Letang escaped discipline. Shaw did not. He's been suspended one game and fined $5,000.
First, Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang channelled his inner Marty McSorely while battling with New York Rangers forward Viktor Stalberg. Letang whipped his stick around in what appears from the video to be a purposeful fashion, slashing Stalberg directly in the neck.
Somehow, Letang's slash avoided the ref's notice - the poor officiating in these playoffs is another topic - and Stalberg shook it off, but it looked intentional and it was unquestionably dangerous and, if the league office doesn't take another look at it and potentially dole out punishment, then the system is beyond repair.
Letang, to his credit, isn't known as a dirty player and hasn't faced league discipline since 2011, so you'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt here. However, punishment in some form or another should be in the cards.
For Chicago Blackhawks forward Andrew Shaw, though, there should be no such leniency.
What Letang did - dangerous and seemingly intentional - was bad. What Shaw did, allegedly aiming a homophobic slur at the refs toward the end of Chicago's 4-3 loss to the Blues that pushes the Blackhawks to the brink of elimination, was worse.
"Being like I just said -- I'll repeat myself for you -- emotions are high," Shaw said after the game. "I don't know what was said. Obviously, I was upset with the call. I wasn't happy with the call."
But Shaw's words ring hollow and insincere. He knows what he said. Watch the video for yourself.
Shaw, assessed a minor penalty for interference late in the third, pretty clearly shouted a homophobic obscenity at the officials.
Now, Shaw is right about one thing - emotions in the game were high. After Crawford came out of his net to attack Blues forward Robby Fabbri following a scoring chance down low, everything seemed to ratchet up a few notches.
The Blackhawks scored on the ensuing - and inexplicable, that officiating again - Chicago power play, and the refs started handing out penalties just to keep play from getting out of hand.
But as an excuse for using that kind of vulgar, base language, it's weak.
Shaw may have come out of Chicago's loss Tuesday night with a goal and two assists, but he's not a guy known for his skill. He's an agitator with just enough talent to thrive alongside and provide protection for some of the Blackhawks' more talented players.
That he would use such language while disputing a call that may have been questionable - that officiating again, but then why was Shaw hitting a Blues player well after the puck had been covered anyway? - isn't surprising. Neither is the fact that he would use a lame excuse like "I don't remember, I was hot" to explain it away.
The league is apparently investigating the incident, and a well-known gay-rights group has made it clear that they'll be following up, so Shaw's not likely to get away from this one scot-free.
Whatever his punishment - Shaw also flipped off the refs - it may not stop Shaw from acting this way in the future, but maybe it'll start to change the minds of some of the league's other line-stepping players and, hopefully, the generation of players still to come.
