CARDIFF,U.K- British Elite League hockey is back for another season of fast-paced, hard-hitting, off the hook rollercoaster action! Sounds exciting doesn’t it? While the action on the ice has mostly lived-up to the above billing, it is probably a description more suited to the off-ice shenanigans which have dominated the headlines and debate.
Weve heard it all over the past few weeks, from allegations of eye-gouging and sucker-punching to media propaganda, jealousy and
Brad Voth (Photo by Mark Tredgold)
On Sunday September 7 2008 at approximately 8.15pm at the Cardiff Bay Arena, Brad Voth missed a check on a Sheffield Steelers player (Randy Dagenais), slashed the same player’s legs and then fought him. I know… never before has such a despicable act of evil been carried out in a hockey arena!
Well apparently not everyone agrees with my sarcastic viewpoint as Voth is currently serving a 12 match ban (six for the slash and six for a sucker-punch which Voth adamantly denies and most observers of the footage admit they struggle to see) for his actions, a record for the UK Elite League.
I will admit to a slight miss-representation of the facts above. If the check had connected, Voth would have probably been penalised for charging. The slash was also quite hard, but perhaps not the full baseball swing described by the Sheffield team. I would probably equate it to a wrist shot taken with full conviction. At the time Voth rightly received a game misconduct penalty for his actions.
As surprised as Voth himself, the Devils organisation and the majority of British hockey fans were when the ban was announced, perhaps it should not have come as such a surprise. For our readers outside of the UK who are not familiar with Brad Voth and his tenure in the British Elite League, heres a quick recap, which will hopefully put events of the last week (and this article) into context.
The Context
Brad Voth is the most high-profile player in the UK Elite League. The 6’5″ 225lbs Canadian is the Cardiff Devils franchise player and probably the leagues most marketable player. A factor which should not be underestimated in what is a minority sport pushing for more prominence in a very competitive UK sporting market.
As a player, he is widely regarded as the leagues premier power-forward and in the words of Belfast Giants GM Todd Kelman; “you wonder what he is doing in this league and why he isnt playing back home for at least an NHL farm team.”
Voth is also no stranger to controversy. Prior to this incident with Dagenais he was involved in a controversial hit on Stefan Sjorgen that ended his season, and more recently a hit on Ashley Tait which led to a six game ban.
All three of his ‘victims’ have one thing in common however. They were all wearing Sheffield Steelers uniforms. This is where the controversy comes in as Voth has been vilified by Sheffield in the media for all three incidents over the last couple of years. Nobody wishes serious injury on any hockey player, but they are inevitable from time to time. Its hockey, not chess!
The hit on Sjorgen was high, but it emerged that his helmet was not securely fastened, meaning the injury could have been less serious than it ended up being. Voth was ejected from the game, but received no ban. Last year Voth served a six game ban for checking Ashley Tait to the head (Taits head was down by the way). The video evidence and ban revealed no evidence of a four second late, blindside, elbow to the head, which was the accusation levelled at Voth. The hit came barely a second after Tait had released the puck, from the side, and with the shoulder.
The Debate
Sheffield Steelers Head-coach Dave Matsos (Photo by Mark Tredgold)
It could be argued that the Steelers had gained more control over Voths reputation than he himself had and the Dagenais incident could be manipulated into that artificial reputation perfectly.
Further weight to this claim was added when a respected South Wales journalist revealed; “strangely, the quotes from Matsos were not anything like his views given to me immediately after the match.” At that stage Matsos merely said the three fights at the end of the match were ‘disappointing’. By next morning, apparently, Matsos was “furious”; and launched a verbal assault against Voth.
Criticism of Matsos did not stop there. He had signed a team full of fast and exciting skaters, but who lacked size and genuine tough guys in a league which saw every other team bulk up over the summer. The accusation grew that the Steelers could not look after itself so had run to the league to protect its players.
Dagenais testimony through the Steelers website and local newspaper epitomized the Steelers growing reputation among UK hockey fans as whiners. “Out of the corner of my eye I saw him coming at full speed…if he had connected I guess they would still be peeling me off the ice….by God he (Voth) is so big and strong..? claimed Dagenais. Reading this account, you could almost imagine the grainy black and white footage of the incident with Voths voice tuned down a few octaves as he bore down on Dagenais from above.
Of course, as much as the Steelers media campaign would have you believe that Voth was the only villain of the piece, the reality was quite different. Lets make it perfectly clear, Voth is no angel, but his actions toward Dagenais were far from unprovoked. Dagenais had just delivered a knee-to-knee hit on the Devils star forward Jason Silverthorn, a play that is capable of ending careers. Dagenais did the same last year, to now Devils coach Gerad Adams.
The Steelers media campaign, that included attacks on Voths character from Dagenais teammates Ryan Finnerty and Mark Thomas were a reason for the Devils fans outrage at the ban, who believed it affected the outcome significantly. How can it possibly have been a fair hearing they asked.
Had Voth received a six game ban and not been subjected to what they perceived as a media witch hunt, most Cardiff fans would have felt aggrieved, but I very much doubt the wave of genuine anger towards the Steelers and the league that followed the ban would have developed.
However, the 12 game suspension, which was seen as outrageously excessive by Devils fans, made a number of circumstances surrounding the ban become far more contentious than they might have been. These included; the fact that Steelers current owner also owned the Devils until last summer, and the revelation that ironically the Steelers try and fail to sign Voth every off-season.
The Consequences
There is one other factor worth considering in Voths ban. This season, the Elite League has a roster of players that make it the toughest in its short history. The hype surrounding the number of fighters heading to the UK may well have made the league and some teams more than a little twitchy. In retrospect, it now seems that a storm was brewing, that erupted on the first weekend of the league season.
Voth wasnt the only player to receive a ban on the first weekend of Elite League action. Rick Kozak of the Hull Stingrays was suspended for 10 games for a sucker punch and unsportsmanlike conduct and perhaps if the Voth and Kozak incidents hadnt occurred on the same night (opening weekend) the bans would not have been as harsh. There was a feeling that the league was making an example of Voth and Kozak.
Both Cardiff and Hull appealed, but both bans stood. However, this announcement was accompanied by a mysterious reference by Elite League Chairman Eamon Convery. He said; “the current processes need to reviewed, which has already commenced, with a view to making recommendations when the clubs meet on October 7.”
After a bit of reading between the lines and an announcement from Cardiff Devils Director of Hockey Shannon Hope, the mysterious meeting to discuss current processes became clearer. Hope revealed that the day before the suspensions were confirmed after appeal he received an email from Convery stating that Voths ban had in fact been halved to six games after appeal.
The meeting, scheduled before the seventh game of Voths ban is likely to see the ban officially cut to six games under the new suspension tariffs decided at that meeting.
While this may seem a bit of a long-winded way of reducing the ban, at least the end result should offer a more practical and suitable tariff for a league thats success and commercial value is vital for the growth and development of ice hockey in the UK. And also, as this author would argue, is more in-line with the kind of suspension that would have been handed out for the same offence in the NHL. Contact the author at Aled.lloyd@prohockeynews.com
Read Scott Antcliffe’s views on Voth’s guilt.
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