Toronto Maple Leafs: Andersen’s Fine Highlights NHL’s Reality Disconnect

Let me get this straight.

Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen can get tripped by Vegas’ David Perron, and the NHL will throw the book at him for diving. But, when Zach Rinaldo – a player with more total games suspended than career goals – sucker punches an unsuspecting player, they let him off a love tap on the wrist.

Good job, NHL. Really cracking down on the issues that matter.

On Thursday morning, the hockey world awoke to learn the NHL had fined Andersen $2,000 for “embellishment”. Supposedly, the incident occurred during Toronto’s New Year’s Eve meeting with the Golden Knights.

You can watch the incident in question below.

Why it took over a week to slap Freddy with a fine, we may never know. What I do know, however, is that if that dive is considered a fineable offence, Brad Marchand should be on welfare by now.

Instead, what we are faced with here is just another example of the NHL’s misguided priorities.

The NHL is Dumb

Let’s break this down, shall we?

Rather than seeking to grow the game, the NHL instead refused to participate in the world’s biggest sports showcase, the Olympics, in favour of Ottawa and Colorado playing games in Sweden.

Rather than working with both the players and owners in crafting a CBA beneficial to both sides of the table, not to mention the health of the sport, they instead choose to threaten lock-out at every turn.

Which brings us to today.

Where, instead of coming down hard on players who commit criminal offences during play, the NHL has seemingly decided to really go hard on a goaltender’s dive which influenced the game’s result to precisely zero effect.

Does this really surprise you? How could it?

This is the same league who decided to put the 30th place Buffalo Sabres front and centre in their nationally televised, marquee game of the season. And then, to their collective shock, it was the lowest rated Winter Classic ever. 

The same league who thought the implementation of glowing pucks on TV would increase popularity. While failing to do that, it did succeed in making hockey look like Tron on ice.

Why Put Up With This?

Now, imagine for a second that the NHL was your boyfriend or girlfriend.

Personally, I would’ve dumped them by now. Probably after they up and vanished for a year because they “needed a break” not once, but twice in less than a decade. I don’t know, that’s just me.

Now, Andersen makes upwards of $5 million per year, so two grand is chump change for him. So, while his fine seems like an insignificant disciplinary action in the grand scheme of things, it serves as much more than that.

In fact, it provides us with a clear glimpse into how disconnected the NHL is from reality.

For as long as Gary Bettman occupies the commissioner’s chair, the NHL will continue to occupy the fourth place slot on the list of North America’s most popular sports leagues.

Next: Toronto Marlies Notebook: Riding the Rollercoaster

At least there won’t be another lockout again! Oh no.