Jacques Demers shakes hands with Stepen Harper in August, 2009.MATHIEU BELANGER
NHL coaching legend and Conservative senator Jacques Demers was at Stephen Harper's Ottawa-area campaign stop Sunday but he had more to say about hockey goons than elections.
He called for $400,000 in fines for head shots in the National Hockey League, which has been struggling to deal with a rash of injuries caused by hard checking.
Mr. Demers, who was appointed to the Senate by Mr. Harper in 2009, told reporters he felt Ottawa has no role in eliminating head shots.
"The government should stay out of it. The league has to police itself. I spent 17 years of my life in the NHL ... and I always believe if you police yourself and you do it right" it will work, he said.
"Suspend the player, fine the player and fine the team."
The senator said he thought the NHL should make it prohibitively expensive for teams to allow such behaviour with an offending player and his team splitting the fine.
"That's probably never been said: If one of your players gives a cheap shot, or a head shot and he's suspended ... it costs him $200,000 -- you should charge $200,000 to his team," Mr. Demers said.
"That will have the owners of the teams or the general managers think twice before they hire a player that is headhunting."
Mr. Demers said the goon activity can be attributed to a select group of players.
"There's just a few players in the the NHL who seem to be repeating," he said, adding the solution is to extract cash from teams whose players cross the line.
"Keep giving fines. Keep taking money out of the players' pockets and actually increasing the fines."
Steven Chase