The Elite Report - Talking DoPS

I was going to do my usual round up of the previous weekend's action but have decided to forgo that to be honest. It's time for another of my occasional rants and it does concern the Elite League anyway. Time for me to rant about the Department of Player Safety (DoPS). I do warn that these are the views of me alone, and not of the team that I have supported since 1991.

Since last season, the EIHL have their own DoPS: a system that has been used worldwide for a number of years. The discussions that always seem to crop up every week concern, this player should be up for review by them for what he did to that player and certain teams run the DoPS for their own advantage. Come on, if you have not seen any of these comments - where the heck have you being hiding these last 15 or so months? You really need to wake up and start smelling the damn coffee if you have missed these comments I can tell you.

DoPS have again hit the headlines for the wrong reasons last week just gone. Face it, has there ever been a week when everyone has agreed with the judgements they have made? Nah, don't think so. Anyway this time, it's the decision to reduce a five match ban for Cardiff captain Tyson Marsh down to just two. In fact DoPS got this one pretty much right initially but remarkably enough this has been reduced on appeal by the Devils organisation which has got us all talking.

Look at the incident for yourself and see what you think.

Marsh Incident

I am staggered to be honest that this was allowed to be appealed against and even more so, the result of the said appeal. The decision is a quite frankly ludicrious in my opinion, even if my Cardiff supporting buddies digress entirely. DoPS got it right, it could have been a lot worse but to have this reduced to two: I find it a joke! An unfunny one at that. No wonder Todd Kelman, Andrew Lord et al are grinning from ear to ear proverbially speaking about this. I reckon there might be some bad blood so to speak the next time Devils and Panthers play each other and Mr Marsh's gonna get a chorus of boos heading his way when he takes to the ice.

So is Kelman running DoPS as some suggest, well we know really he isn't, and neither is Tony Smith as some have also suggested in the past. DoPS will continue to court controversy until there is some kind of consistency in their decision making, and I fear that is a bit of a way off at the moment. As it has been pointed out, DoPS here is unlike the NHL version, decisions are made by people in other countries. I can just imagine someone in Germany sitting through a video of Darryl Lloyd doing something unfair when his wife wants him upstairs for some well, you know...

And there endeth this rant, well if you can call it one. 

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