NHL Headshot of the Week

"For the sake of the game, they oughta throw him in San Quentin.
He is a criminal element!The worst goon in hockey today.
Oh, yeah. Real cement-head." - player/coach Reg Dunlop

I can't take credit for this idea - it was Sports As Life's head-fantasy writer Trebor's idea. But I'm fully on board. As we were discussing this last night, he expressed some concerns that there might not be enough material from week to week. I, on the other hand, didn't think that was going to be a problem. So here we go - I don't know if this feature will be appearing every Friday or not but I have a feeling you'll see it most weeks.

This week's NHL Headshot of the Week belongs to Jesses Boulerice of the Philadelphia Flyers, who tried his best to shove the shaft of his stick down the throat of Vancouver's Ryan Kesler.

You can view the hit here.

Now in my estimation Boulerice needs to be suspended for at least 20 games. But for some reason I think he's going to get less than that - and I have no idea why. Maybe because Kesler wasn't seriously hurt or stretchered off the ice.

Here's my theory - suspend him for the year. Get him out of the game. I think that penalty is way over the top but the only way to get through to people that this behaviour is unacceptable is to make a serious example of someone. The 20 game suspension to Steve Downie is definitely a step in the right direction - that's a quarter of the season - but apparently people just aren't getting the message. So why not make an example of this goon who has apparently very limited hockey skills anyway. What if that had been Sydney Crosby instead of Ryan Kesler? People would be calling for Boulerice to be shot by firing squad.