On Saturday afternoon, the National Hockey League announced that Washington Capitals defenseman Mike Green has been suspended three games for an elbow he gave to Florida Panthers forward Michael Frolik during the first period of a game on Jan. 29. Frolik was fine and Green was assessed a minor penalty for elbowing, but the ramifications of this type of incident are huge in the hockey world and are one of the prime items on the agenda - player safety.

Green will forfeit his pay for the three games, totaling $81,606.21. That money will go into the Player’s Emergency Assistance Fund, and one day could very well go to a player who is victim of a similar play that Green was part of. When it comes to head shots, there’s no telling what kind of injury may result. While Frolik was uninjured, you only need to watch the hit that major junior player Patrice Cormier laid on Mikael Tam in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League to see what kind of damage can be done. Cormier’s elbow left Tam convulsing on the ice and was later taken to the hospital.

The difference between Green’s hit and Cormier’s was the outcome. Green will miss three games; Cormier has been suspended for the remainder of the QMJHL season. While the Canadian Hockey League has been known recently for its harsher suspensions against players than the National Hockey League, should the resultant injury ever be in consideration when determining the length of suspension of an offending player? What does the fact that Frolik is okay and Tam is in hospital have to do with the fact that Green and Cormier committed one of the worst offenses around in hockey?

Green should have been suspended for way longer. His attack on Frolik was clearly intentional. Frolik skated into Green, who led with his elbow and that’s that. To suggest that a junior player like Cormier deserved a season-ending suspension while Green, a five-year veteran of the NHL deserved just three games is ridiculous. The NHL needs to step up and take a lead in this area. These kinds of dirty plays have the potential to end careers and ruin lives, and it should be the NHL’s mandate to help protect its players by any means.