There is really no way to sugarcoat it, so let's just come out and say it: San Jose Sharks forward John Scott did something dumb in the second period of their game against the Anaheim Ducks on Monday night and he deserves some sort of punishment from the NHL for it.
Following a stoppage in play right in front of the Anaheim net, Scott, for some reason, decided to hit Anaheim Ducks forward Tim Jackman in the face with the butt-end of his stick, knocking Jackman to the ice and out of the game.
There was no penalty called on the play. Here is a look at it from several replay angles.
That is just completely unnecessary. Really, what is the point of that? What was he possibly hoping to accomplish there?
There was a bit of a skirmish taking place after San Jose's Andrew Desjardins bumped into Ducks goalie Frederik Andersen, but nothing that should have involved Scott or Jackman, and certainly nothing that should have resulted in Scott feeding Jackman a stick to the face.
Scott is one of the few true heavyweight "enforcers" still playing in the NHL. The type of player that is supposed to "police" the game, enforce "the code" and keep the rest of the players on the ice in line as some sort of deterrent. But it rarely works out that way, and as teams have started to realize that it is not worth carrying a player with limited NHL skills that can only play five or six minutes per night, the enforcer has started to slowly go away. They rarely, if ever, deter violence and instead usually help escalate and initiate it.
And that is exactly what Scott did on Monday night for no good reason.
Scott has already been suspended once this season, earning a two-game ban for leaving the bench to fight Jackman in a previous game against the Ducks. He was suspended seven games a season ago for a hit to the head of Boston Bruins forward Louii Eriksson.
