Mitchell praises NHL’s discipline efforts

Willie Mitchell, well-spoken and opinionated, has never been shy about expressing his feelings regarding NHL issues. Mitchell speaks with authority, particularly when it comes to the type of blindside hits and hits to the head that the league has been increasingly trying to eliminate in recent years. Mitchell lost nearly half of the 2009-10 season, and had his career put in jeopardy for a time, when he deal with severe concussion symptoms after a hit from Evgeni Malkin. In many cases, Mitchell has been critical of the league’s efforts — or lack thereof — to deal with player safety, but on Friday, Mitchell praised the league. Brendan Shanahan, the NHL’s new executive in charge of player discipline, has drawn strong reviews in recent days for his clarity and aggressiveness in handing out suspensions for bad hits. Mitchell gave Shanahan a thumbs-up, and also praised a video –shown to Kings players on Tuesday — that outlined legal and illegal hits.

MITCHELL: “It was excellent. I’ve been, I wouldn’t say calling out anyone, but I’ve been saying what I think on things. I’m not saying it to be an ass toward anyone. I just think, a lot of times in life, you should stand up and be accounted for. I did think that they could have been more aggressive (in the past) with the things they’ve done. The first thing I’d like to say is that, from last year to this year, the videos that they sent out have been so professionally done. It’s hands down, night and day over what we saw last year. The stuff they had on there last year, the same check was on there for a legal hit and an illegal hit. Players were in that locker room saying, `Which ones were legal? Which ones were illegal?’ You couldn’t even tell. They did such a tremendous job with the video this year, defining the terms, the rules but also showing examples of that, slowing it down and talking about it. It was a good job. (Shanahan) and Matt Schneider did that, and I thought it was an excellent job.

“Obviously you can see early on, they’re saying, `We’re going to take care of our players. They’re important assets to this game.’ We all like to play the game hard and we all like to play physical and stuff. I love to do that, but I also want my peer to be healthy when he’s done playing hockey. We need to get to a point where we can keep it a physical game, but everyone can walk away from the game for the most part healthy. Early on, (the league is) saying, `This is how it’s going to be. Repeat offenders, we’re going to come after you.’ And I think that’s good. To me, if you miss hockey, you hurt your team. And if it’s money out of the pocketbook, you think twice about doing it. So I like it.”