NHL proves yet again it has no backbone

Nathan Horton laid on the ice motionless for what seemed to be an eternity. The camera zoomed in so everybody watching could see as he struggled to take deep breaths on the ice while unconscious. The panic he went through when he finally regained any sense as to what was going on was unbearable.

That was the end result of one of the most vicious, disgusting hits I have ever seen in hockey. Aaron Rome, the responsible party for this hit, not only deserved to miss the rest of the Stanley Cup Finals, but he deserved to miss much more as well. The problem is, the NHL yet again showed that its disciplinary action is far from respectable by only suspending him for the rest of the Cup Finals.

Possibly even more disgusting than the hit itself, was Mike Murphy, senior vice president of hockey operations, stating that the hit was not covered under Rule 48 and was simply an issue of a late hit. Murphy went on to explain exactly what went into the decision-making process behind the suspension.

"Two factors were considered in reaching this decision," said Murphy. "The hit by Rome is clearly beyond what is acceptable in terms of how late it was delivered after Horton had released the puck and it caused significant injury."

For those of you who are unaware of Rule 48, it defines an illegal hit to the head as, "A lateral or blind side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or the principal point of contact is not permitted."

What is most frustrating about this whole situation is the fact that while the hit was definitely a north-south play, Rome was targeting an unsuspecting player. Replays clearly show that Horton takes nearly three full strides before contact takes place and Rome's eyes never leave Horton the entire time. Rome knew that the puck left Horton's possession, yet he was intent on delivering a critical blow. Sadly, he did.

The NHL took steps forward this season to finally addressing hits to the head, an issue that has been hindering the league for quite some time now. However, an incident like we saw Tuesday shows just how much further they need to go to addressing the problem.

One step toward possibly doing this is the NHL naming Brendan Shanahan the new head of discipline next season, taking over for Colin Campbell. While some will contend that Shanahan will have a conflict of interest when addressing disciplinary actions for teams like the Red Wings, who he played for, I believe that being a former player, along with working in the league office will help him intelligently and fairly hand down discipline.

As for now, I only wish somebody in the league office would have had the backbone to stand up to the dirty hit by Rome and suspend him for a greater length of time. It was one of the most disgusting plays we have ever had to witness, yet sadly, there will be another hit in the future that tops it. Hopefully by then, the league works out its problems and can adequately handle it when it does happen.