Long suspensions for players who attack referees, like Ducks’ Antoine Vermette, are always justified

Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images
Referees sometimes feel the wrath of players.

PUBLISHED: February 15, 2017 at 12:48 p.m. | UPDATED: April 8, 2018 at 4:25 a.m.

What is so hard about this? Don’t get physical with the referees or umpires in any sport.

Ever.

Anaheim Ducks center Antoine Vermette was slapped with an automatic 10-game suspension on Wednesday for abuse of an official after getting ejected the previous night in the third period of a game against Minnesota for slashing one of the linesmen in the back of the legs with his stick following a faceoff.

There are plenty of intolerable infractions in sports, but taking out frustrations on the officials always is reprehensible and beyond unacceptable, and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman would be within his rights to increase Vermette’s Category 2 suspension through the league’s appeals process.

Bettman can choose to increase, decrease or uphold the 10 games upon appeal, although it should be noted that the NHL’s 20-game Category 1 ban of Calgary defenseman Dennis Wideman’s for crosschecking a linesman into the boards last February later was halved to 10 games by an independent arbitrator.

Earlier this season, Arizona Coyotes defenseman Anthony DeAngelo was suspended three games for a lesser Category 3 violation, shoving away a linesman who was trying to restrain him following a brief on-ice skirmish.

By now, we all know the history of such ugly incidents throughout sports. Whether it was Roberto Alomar spitting in umpire John Hirschbeck’s face two decades ago, Delmon Young throwing a bat at another umpire in a minor-league game, Toronto’s Brett Lawrie chucking his helmet at one following a called strike, Ravens cornerback Cary Williams shoving a ref during the Super Bowl, or the various disturbing viral videos of high-school football players and international soccer players going after referees on the field, as well as boxers in the ring.

Just last week, teenage tennis player Denis Shapovalov even made news for hitting a tennis ball in frustration into the face of the chair umpire.

The problem with the Vermette incident and ones like it, of course, is that hockey’s beauty often is downplayed or ignored in the media that doesn’t regularly cover the sport, while stories like this always invariably land in the headlines.

(Guilty as charged at times, admittedly, if we’re being honest.)

Fighting and stick infractions clearly are rarer occurrences in today’s game than they were in the Broad Street Bullies days of the 1970s, but those debates and stories always still seem to strike a nerve and prompt outrage with the general public whenever incidents like these resurface.

Sunday night, in fact, Detroit’s Gustav Nyquist egregiously jammed a high stick into the face of Minnesota’s Jared Spurgeon. He will undergo a phone hearing with the league later Wednesday to determine how long he will be suspended.

Nyquist and Vermette both certainly should face sizable bans; there is no doubt about that.

Vermette didn’t speak to reporters following Tuesday’s game, but there clearly is no excuse for ever using your stick in that manner, particularly involving a referee.

It appeared that Vermette was upset the linesman dropped the puck before Vermette was set to take it, and Minnesota’s Mikko Koivu easily pulled the puck away. The linesman had turned to head up the ice when Vermette slashed him across the back of the legs.

Whatever the player’s explanation, though, his suspension will be justified. It always is in these situations.

OUTTA BOTTE EXPERIENCE

Pulling for David Wright, but you can’t be particularly encouraged by the initial reports coming out of spring training that he still hasn’t thrown a ball since neck surgery and that his spinal stenosis is still bothering him.

The Mets’ captain fully has earned the right to attempt another comeback, of course he has, and perhaps moving to first base is the eventual answer here.

Will be an ongoing storyline all spring.

— The Phillies supposedly have former Mets closer Tug McGraw’s trademark 1973 phrase “Ya Gotta Believe” on a sign on one of the walls in their spring-training facility.

Yes, I know he later played for the Phils, too, but ya gotta be kidding with that.

— Did you see that story that an Atlanta zoo has named a Madagascar cockroach after Tom Brady? Nope, you can’t ever kill those suckers.

— In some positive hockey news, Jaromir Jagr turned 45 on Wednesday. He’s third on the Panthers in scoring this season, and he’s now one point shy of joining Wayne Gretzky as the only players with 1,900 for an NHL career. Simply remarkable.

PETE’S PICKS

Following Tuesday’s incident involving NHL player Antoine Vermette slashing a linesman, here are my Top 5 (or Worst 5) videos involving physical abuse of an official.

5. ROBERTO ALOMAR