The Tanguay Tango

It seems that Jared Spurgeon will be getting some quality time in the infirmary playing cribbage and backgammon with Gui Latendresse and Pierre-Marc Bouchard. I don't know if Spurgeon speaks French, but he better learn quick.

The reason for The Spurge's convalescence is this high elbow from Alex Tanguay of the Calgary Flames.

Matt Cooke he is not, but Tanguay needs to be responsible for his body and his elbow. If Spurgeon's big brother Pierre-Marc Bouchard can get suspended for games for letting the opposing player high-stick himself with Butch's stick, then this situation is certainly comparable:

In this video, Shanahan says that "Bouchard is responsible for his own stick and the end result." I would say that in the Tanguay/Spurgeon situation, Tanguay is responsible for his own body and the end result. The fact that Spurgeon isn't 6-foot-7 or that this would be an elbow to the groin of Zdeno Chara is not relevant.

Let's hope that Shanny can give Tanguay some time to brush up on his own backgammon strategy.

Update:

Apparently the League has decided that Tanguay's hit was fine and dandy. 

Horseshit.

Tanguay had his elbow high, and I can see no reason for him to take his hand off his stick and raise his elbow if not to target an opponent. The primary point of contact was Spurgeon's head (at 0:29 of the first video) and the hit resulted in an injury. THAT IS A TEXTBOOK HIT TO THE HEAD, SHANAHAN.

This only underscores what appears to be a double standard in the NHL. Only players on certain teams can be confident that if their safety is threatened that the League will bother to do anything about it. 

If the League really was serious about protecting the safety of its most important assets, they'd apply standards evenly across ALL teams, not just certain teams.