COMMENTARY : Bettman’s Decision Is Only First Step in Changing the NHL

Gerry Miller, a defenseman, stands in front of the judge, charged with manslaughter with a hockey stick. As his defense, Miller, played by Michael Moriarty, says he’s sorry the opponent died, but, Miller says, he’s no star. His only function as a professional is to do what he’s been trained to do and what the fans, management and his coach expect of him.

He was just doing his job and what was accepted of him. It was how he survived in hockey.

That’s art imitating life, the 1977 film “The Deadliest Season” imitating hockey.

In all our outrage at a beautiful game being spoiled, it would be comfortable to shout for Dale Hunter to be pilloried, flayed, beaten, stood up against executed. Vengeance would be ours.

But that wouldn’t be right, would it? That wouldn’t be hockey, would it? Or would it?

Try this historic comment:

“If you can’t beat them in the alley, you can’t beat them on the ice.” That was Conn Smythe, then president of the Maple Leafs. He’s held in such respect that a whole division is named after him.

Try this one:

“I only wish I had one man I could have sent after Mikita to send him back to Czechoslovakia in a coffin.” That was Don Cherry, then coach of the Bruins, who is now the most beloved hockey voice in Canada.

Ride the train to a Rangers game and see the buying and selling of the taped greatest Rangers fights of the last 10 years. Open the mail and see the pamphlet titled “Aggressive Hockey” and file it under “Euphemism.”

Gary Bettman, the new NHL commissioner, Tuesday suspended Hunter without pay for 21 games. That’s a quarter of next season. It will cost him $150,000. It’s the most severe penalty in the history of the league.

With the exception of 20-day suspension of a player for assaulting a referee, no player had ever been suspended more than 15 days, and there are only two of those on record. And they both were stick-related. The league has always reserved its greatest shock for that.

Play Hunter’s suspension against that backdrop. In effect, this is ex post facto punishment. Hunter was doing merely what he’d been trained to do and what the fans, management and his coach expect of him, and what the league has always allowed. He also happens to be the Capitals’ best player.

He was doing what he thought was acceptable. “Under my watch, this is the way I’m going to deal with these incidents,” Bettman said Tuesday. It was his way of trying to give peace a chance.

Of course, Bettman could have stamped down harder and made some people happy. Players are supposed to be human beings, and the rules of human behavior are not suspended for the duration of the game. The owners brought Bettman from the NBA to bring some of its wild prosperity to the ice. Bettman thinks the smoldering violence of hockey and its incessant fighting is a turnoff to most fans.

But Bettman can’t civilize the whole game of hockey with one decision. He’s been commissioner less than three months. Hunter’s suspension is a heavy penalty. Whether it stands as a giant step in the civilizing depends on whether Bettman follows through in what he called the Dale Hunter Mode. This is supposed to be punishment for Hunter and it’s supposed to tell players to re-invent the game.

If Bettman doesn’t follow through, this is merely showcasing. Every comparable instance has to be treated comparably.

It would have stood for more if Bettman had held Capitals Coach Terry Murray accountable for something. Once coaches stop demanding that kind of play from their players, once they make it clear that thuggery is unacceptable, it will stop. And the beauty of the game will have a chance to bloom.

Bettman said that Murray in no way directed Hunter, which appears valid on the surface, except that players conduct themselves in accord with the coach’s wishes. Hunter is the third-most penalized player in history, so Murray had to approve for a long time.

Roger Neilson kept Tie Domi on the Rangers. Neilson was the coach when Mario Lemieux was slashed out of the playoffs with an ax-stroke. “Sometimes coaches will say to a player, ‘Go and fight,’ ” Neilson said. “We don’t do that. Players know when they’re sort of supposed to initiate something.”

Rumbling that if Hunter had assaulted Lemieux the way Hunter mugged Pierre Turgeon is a fools’ errand. All the speculation is baloney because of history. Bettman’s job is to reverse the history of hockey, and that isn’t simple. For the public, players say they understand the need for this penalty and some say it isn’t harsh enough, but I suspect that in their heart of hearts more of them were more comfortable with the understanding that there were no rules.

Listen to the old Islanders, a really decent bunch, talking and laughing about the slashes and the spears as if they were all so many lovetaps.

The Moriarty role in “The Deadliest was based on fact. The State of Minnesota indicted Dave Forbes of the Boston Bruins for aggravated assault for hitting Henry Boucha of Minnesota in the face with his stick, fracturing his eye cavity. Boucha, the victim, told the jurors: “It was a dumb thing to do. There’s an unwritten rule that you don’t maim a guy. But I’m sure he didn’t mean it. It’s part of the game.” A mistrial was declared when the jury could not reach a verdict.

Dan Maloney of Detroit attacked Brian Glennie of Toronto from behind and knocked him senseless. Maloney testified that “all hockey players stand ready to accept physical assault when they take the ice.” He had no hard feelings. The verdict was not guilty.

That’s the game they were brought up with. Bettman has been commissioner less than three months and the Stanley Cup is already in its 100th season.

This can only be the opening faceoff.