By Josh Brewster, Hockeytalk.biz

LOS ANGELES - OCT 22 2005 --

TORONTO (Oct. 21, 2005) – Atlanta Thrashers forward Eric Boulton has been suspended...pending a hearing, as a result of his hit on Tampa Bay player Paul Ranger during NHL game #100 against the Lightning on Thursday night.

BARRY MELROSE of ESPN (you remember them) made some great remarks to STEVE LEVY Friday morning during Sportscenter, when he suggested that coaches should be disciplined for using "enforcer" types, such as ERIC BOULTON, whose elbow to the face of Tampa’s PAUL RANGER Thursday night caused a concussion and a hairline fracture of the jaw.

Atlanta Coach BOB HARTLEY recently sent Boulton to the ice to go after ERIC LINDROS, but the league reserved judgment in that matter. They won't, in this one.

The divisional foes meet again for what promises to be a dramatic home-and-home series next weekend, October 29 and 30.

The time has come, and it came a long time ago, to rid the game of one of its last remaining sideshows: The “Enforcer.” In hockey, that’s the guy who logs but a few minutes, and exists only to deliver punishment.

Side show, freak show, curiosity. Other major sports just don’t value side shows. In the past, Hockey clung to them like a smoker to his Lucky’s.

However, this is a new day in the league. The NHL has, for 2005-06, established a new rule to address late-game fights and the coaches who send marginal players like Boulton to the ice:

“A player who is deemed to be an instigator of an altercation in the final five (5) minutes of regulation or at any time in overtime, shall be assessed an instigator minor penalty, a major for fighting, a ten minute misconduct and an automatic one-game suspension. The length of the suspension will double each subsequent offense. In addition, the player’s coach will be fined $10,000 – a fine which will double for each subsequent incident.” RULE 56 (a)

(While Boulton's hit was an elbow, and the rule pertains to fights, it's worth noting the message sent by this rule.)

Tampa coach John Tortorella backtracked a bit on Friday night, but he was dead-on in his profanity-laden tirade against Hartley and Boulton, saying that Boulton belonged in the ECHL (he doesn’t belong in the NHL, Torts is right on this one), and that the shot was “cheap” and “disturbing.”

Hockey needs to get its arms around this distraction. If the hit on Ranger had been just a bit harder, who knows? The NHL might have had another Steve Moore on their hands. The hockey world waits to see what course the NHL will take.

Meanwhile, the laughs from outside the hockey world continue.

Here's something from the online laugher THE ONION which makes even more sense than the NHL's continued practice of keeping guys like Boulton around:

"Hockey's Rule Changes," from the Onion:
Number 4: "Teams allowed to protect skilled players with either designated on-ice "goon/enforcer" or a man with a high-powered rifle seated in Section 431."

At this point in hockey history, let's do away with the goonism; if our skilled players can fight, great, but to continue the use of bums like Boulton keeps the NHL in the Stone Age.

Players like the retired Bob Probert or Mel Bridgman, or the Kings' current Sean Avery and Toronto’s Tie Domi take a regular shift as legitimate players, not just four or five minutes of goon time, like Boulton or Andrew Peters of Buffalo, for example.

As hockey fans are also aware, a great example is the retired Scott Stevens, who had but a handful of elbowing penalties throughout his career, but was one of hockey’s toughest defensemen during his time.

There was no need for the elbow that Boulton threw.  It's exactly that kind of hit that brings the World Wrestling Federation jokes to the fore, and at times like that, the uneducated masses are probably right in laughing at the NHL, regardless of their ignorance.

These goon tactics are as old as the hills, and there will always be fights in hockey at points, but if there's a "New" NHL at hand, then Hartley should pay a more severe penalty than Boulton for the goon tactics.

The days of the bearded lady and other freaks at the carnival have faded into memory; those sorts of things now live on only the fringe of the entertainment world.

Time to put hockey’s side show to rest, too.

Josh Brewster