Just my thoughts… and there are two things here: 1) me with a “legal” hat on, and 2) what I think will happen (but that hinges entirely on UK law, which can be VERY different from our laws).
Some Definitions:
- Accident: an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury. An event that happens by chance or that is without apparent or deliberate cause.
- Intentional: done on purpose; deliberate.
- Negligence: failure to use reasonable care, resulting in damage or injury to another (that's the legal, not literal, definition).
- Reasonable care: the degree of caution and concern for the safety of himself/herself and others an ordinarily prudent and rational person would use in the circumstances.
- Involuntary Manslaughter (according to US Federal law anyway) - an unlawful killing of another without malice that occurs:
- In commission of an unlawful act not amounting to a felony
- In commission in an unlawful manner, or without due caution or circumspection of a lawful act, which might produce death
My thoughts…
- The decision to slew his foot back at a player going around him was “intentional” (clearly done to break up the play, it’s not like he was falling and his foot went up), "illegal" (by rule, not law), and "negligent" (by law).
- He did not use “reasonable care” regarding his skates.
- This death was not an "accident," this death was involuntary manslaughter.
That said, getting a conviction will likely be a hard, hard sell. I still think McSorely and Bertuzzi got off easy legally speaking and their acts on the ice were blatantly intentional, both could very easily have resulted in death with heads hitting ice.
There have been several notable skate disasters in the NHL, but I think this is the first case anywhere that one resulted from an intentional act vs. “schit happens.”
What do I think should happen?
- legal punishment like McSorely/Bertuzzi (an assload of community service and probation).
- banned from play.
This is very similar to the mandatory “no helmet vs helmet” change that happened in our lifetime (most of our lifetime’s anyway), and I’m guessing we’ll start to see mandatory neck guards at least at the Juniors level and below if not just about universally.
ProTip #6294: Kids, keep your blades on the ice.