‘Let’s remember, he’s 19:’ Critical look at lengthy SJHL suspension

Just two days into the 2019-20 SJHL season, a blanket of criticism rocked the league when now former-Yorkton Terriers forward Greg Mulhall hit and injured Melville Millionaires goaltender Berk Berkeliev.

The hit was broadcast internationally, sparking a debate around the hockey world. Some said the 25-game suspension that followed was not enough, was too much, or just right. Some even blamed goaltender Berkeliev for leaving his crease.

25 game suspension!! https://t.co/ZKltni35li

— The Green Zone (@GreenZoneSK) September 16, 2019

Just 15 days later, a profanity-laced video surfaced of Mulhall speaking out about the hit.

In the video, Mulhall stated who he was before saying, “F-ing rights I ran the goalie, man,” then continued by naming the goaltender, “F- Berk Berkeliev.”

The video has since been viewed over 122,000 times on Twitter. Following the release, the SJHL and the Terriers severed ties with the 19-year-old Fort McMurray, Alta., product for the 2019-20 season.

This is the first time in recent memory that a suspension of this length was handed out. 650 CKOM was able to speak to Jeff Odgers, a former longtime NHL player, and the SJHL’s longtime communications and in-house writer and broadcaster, Mike Stackhouse about the hit, the video, public perception, and the fallout from it all.

The initial reaction

“I’ve seen that so many times from my junior hockey days … It was a bad hit. It was, I’ll be honest,” Odgers, who had a 12-year NHL career, said when asked his perception of the hit on Sept. 12.

Odgers said he felt the price was steep, but adequate. The former NHLer was no stranger to severe plays throughout his career, amassing 2,364 penalty minutes over 821 games with San Jose, Boston, Colorado and Atlanta.

Odgers admits he played in a different time, and said the game has changed, in his opinion, more than any other sport. He said the way the game is policed in 2019 is a lot different from when he put on the skates.

“It’s a hit that they’re trying to take out of the game,” Odgers said. “Maybe back a few years ago, the goalie might have thought that (was something that could have happened), but he had no clue that he was going to get hit there when he went and played the puck.”

Odgers spoke of the “code” players used to follow with much of the policing done on the ice, rather than the league stepping in like the SJHL did with the record 25-game suspension.

“Player safety is first and foremost,” he said. “They want to look after the player, look after their players’ health. If you look at the history of concussions, and everything that’s evolved and how much more we’re aware of head injuries, that part is changing …

“Any kind of hit that looks like you’re intentionally trying to injure somebody, or hurt someone, it’s going to be dealt with (severely), by the length of suspensions that they’re handing out.”

On the SJHL’s website, the league only tracks disciplinary reports from 2013-14 to the present. In that time, three separate instances of eight-game suspensions were the highest listed.

Due to the length of the suspension and the timing of Mulhall being banned from the SJHL for the 2019-20 season, he still has 20 games left to serve before he hits the ice in any capacity with another team. This goes for any Hockey Canada-sanctioned game.

Stackhouse, who has been with the SJHL in some capacity since the 2001 season, said the most recent on-ice incident he could remember with this much exposure on the league was former Millionaires head coach Jamie Fiesel’s “three blind mice” routine in the 2011 season.

Fiesel was featured internationally with the tirade. He was fined $300 and suspended two games by the league.

Stackhouse said the league has worked on eliminating hits such as these from the game, and they’ve been successful up into this point.

“The game of hockey in general has changed as society has changed,” he said. “You don’t see the fighting you used to see. You used to see a 5-1 hockey game with four minutes left in the third period because guys would square off every whistle.”

Stackhouse said the young players now have lived through the “post-lockout” hockey era, and they don’t want to be violent. A skillful game is what they focus on, as well as getting to a higher level of hockey.

He believes the 25-game suspension was warranted, and that the league got it right. When he was involved in speaking to coaches, there was one question he’d always ask when it came to violent plays.

“Is this something we’re OK with seeing every Friday night at a hockey game?” he said.

Stackhouse answered his own question in saying: “Very clearly, this (incident) would be a no.”

“If you don’t want to see something like this in your game, you have to issue a suspension that would be a very obvious deterrent to somebody else with regards to doing it,” he said.

‘It’s a hard lesson to learn,’ hockey and social media

When Odgers played, there was no social media.

When Stackhouse began with the SJHL, Facebook and Twitter weren’t yet created.

Yet, as hockey has grown, so has society as a whole. Odgers played in the times where fights and brawls were the norm. He said the Sept. 14 game would have been a long one to watch if it was played in his time.

“It would have took about an hour and a half to finish playing the rest of the game,” he said. “It would have turned into one big brawl … Their goaltender would have got ran, and then you’d send out your five toughest guys, and they’d send out their five toughest guys, and it would have went on from there.”

Odgers said it’s an interesting situation, especially where the video originated from. He believes that there was no intent behind the words Mulhall spoke in the video.

“Getting suspended for the year for something that he had done … he’s with his buddy, he shoots his mouth off a little bit,” Odgers said. “I don’t think there’s any malicious intent there. That’s just a kid being a kid.”

Meanwhile, Stackhouse said following the video, the SJHL and the Terriers had no choice but to let the forward go.

“I don’t know that there’s any other recourse that the league or the hockey team has other than to severe ties …,” he said. “If you said, ‘You know what, he’s swearing and acting disrespectful, but a lot of guys swear and act disrespectful on social media, so we’re just going to let him keep playing,’ you would probably lose a lot of your fans if you did something like that.”

He said the league needed to react accordingly, in the way that those online reacted when the video surfaced. Being around the junior hockey players, he wasn’t shocked when hearing the language that was used.

“I’ve been around hockey players a long time … those types of words and those types of comments come out of hockey players mouths quite frequently,” he said.

It was the situation that he believes changed the way people looked at the video. The “lack of respect” was what was troubling. Berkeliev suffered a concussion, spent the night in hospital, and lost teeth due to the hit.

When the contact was made, his helmet left his head, hitting the ice. In total, Berkeliev had 13 to 15 stitches in his head and lip.

Stackhouse said society played a big factor in the decision to ban Mulhall for the rest of the season, and without policing on the ice, players needed to be accountable.

“Society demands it now …,” Stackhouse said. “The public wants the leagues to take it over.”

A message to Mulhall

Both Stackhouse and Odgers said the situation was tough, especially on a 19-year-old. Again, Odgers said he did not condone the hit or what happened after the fact, but he said Mulhall is still young, and not perfect.

“We’re expecting perfection out of teenage boys,” Odgers said. “Teenage boys are far from perfect. Most adults are far from perfect.”

Odgers said this was a “hard lesson to learn” for the player.

“I feel bad for him …,” Odgers said. “I think he’s just a kid that made one mistake.”

Stackhouse, on the other hand, said he has met and knows Mulhall. Stackhouse said this whole ordeal is a good lesson for Mulhall, especially at the age of 19. Stackhouse has a message for the player.

“Don’t feel like you’re alone, even though it might feel like that in the moment,” he said.

“You’ve got a long life ahead of you and a great opportunity to learn from a mistake. If you approach it the right way, you can probably be a useful teacher to other kids on the ramifications of what happens when you lose your temper, or when you’re not thinking clearly when you’re maybe under the influence of alcohol.”

Stackhouse said he has also made mistakes at the same age. The difference is that there was no social media when he was growing up at that time.

He said people need to be reminded of what they were doing when they were a teenager, and reminded that Mulhall does have a chance to rectify his mistakes.

“He’s not a bad person, he’s made a couple of bad choices …,” Stackhouse said. “Let’s remember, he’s 19.”