But on Monday, Shanahan showed he also knows when it's best to put the gavel away.
Shanahan held a hearing with Bruins forward Milan Lucic on Monday afternoon to discuss Saturday's hit on Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller. While the Sabres lobbied hard for a suspension and some hysterical members of the media (shockingly many of them based out of Montreal) called for Lucic's head on a spit, Shanahan didn't cave to the pressure and ruled correctly that no further discipline was warranted.
That's not to say that Lucic was completely innocent. He did run over Miller with little or no effort to avoid the contact. That is against the rules, as goalies are not fair game to be hit even when they stray as far from the crease as Miller did on that play. Thus Lucic was hit with a two-minute penalty for charging. That was the right call by the referees on the ice and the only call that needed to be made, a fact Shanahan reaffirmed on Monday.
"The minor penalty called on the ice was the correct call," Shanahan said in the announcement of his decision on NHL.com. "And, while it's unfortunate that Miller was hurt I saw nothing egregious about this hit that would elevate it to supplemental discipline."
"Nothing egregious" being the key phrase here. This wasn't a pre-planned assault or some strategy designed by Lucic and the Bruins to try to knock Miller out of the game. Why would they want to with the way Miller has been playing of late?
There was no deliberate attempt to injure, just an unfortunate collision that Miller took the worst of. That happens in hockey. It is still a contact sport.
The only other penalty calls needed should have been the roughing minors and fighting majors that would have followed if the Sabres had even the slightest bit of pride and commitment to their teammate who had been laid out. They failed to do that, then hoped the league would bail them out and punish Lucic for them.
Well, even with the NHL as neutered as it is these days, sometimes you have to do things for yourself. The Sabres had more than two periods to exact some form of justice, and Lucic would surely had answered the bell if he had been challenged.
Instead, the Sabres tucked their tails between their legs and were run out of the building as Boston scored six straight goals after the incident. The Sabres didn't show any willingness to stand up for themselves or their goalie until long after the final buzzer, when Miller launched a postgame verbal assault on Lucic. Miller called the Bruins forward "gutless" and "a piece of [expletive]," words that would have been more properly directed at his own teammates.
Lucic didn't take the bait, saying Monday after practice in response to Miller's insults, "It's just in one ear and out the other and move on and focus on what I need to do to continue helping this team to be successful."
Lucic has been a big part of Boston's success of late, posting 8-6-14 totals in his last nine games. He'll get to continue that roll without interruption now that the suspension-happy Shanahan has shown some rare restraint.
Not surprisingly, Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli was pleased with that decision, and also with Lucic refraining from firing any verbal salvos back at Miller.
"We are satisfied with the NHL's announcement that there will be no suspension or fine for Milan, and we respect the process that the league took to reach this decision," Chiarelli said in a statement. "I am also proud that Milan took the high road, and chose not to engage in an exchange of words after the unfortunate comments that were made about him following the game."
Lucic had no need to respond. The Sabres are the ones who should have responded on the ice. They failed miserably in that regard, then begged the league to try to do it for them.
Shanahan didn't fall for it. There's been some growing pains in the early days of his tenure. Some of his suspensions have rightfully raised concerns that the NHL was trying to take too much of the physical play out of the game. But on Monday, Shanahan didn't continue down that wrong path.
He made the right call. Hockey fans, and not just Bruins fans, should be glad he did.
