Pronger Defends Against Goon Rep

OTTAWA -- June 3, 2007— -- If we are to believe Chris Pronger, his second playoff suspension in a matter of weeks isn't the mark of a dirty player with little regard for his opponents or his teammates, but a cry for help.

How else to explain the actions of a supposedly elite player who for the second time this playoff season leaves opponents motionless on the ice with blows to the head, then suggests he is powerless to change his ways.

"I don't think I can, for me to be the type of player I can be," Pronger said. "Obviously, it's a fine line and getting finer every year, and we have to make subtle adjustments. But I don't think I can make wholesale changes and still be the type of player I can be."

That'll be of small comfort to Tomas Holmstrom, whom he bloodied in the Western Conference finals by smashing his head into the glass, or to Dean McAmmond, who may or may not play Monday night in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals, or to Pronger's teammates, who face the prospect of having to win on the road without their best player as they try to prevent the Senators from tying this series.

After the Holmstrom hit, the often irreverent Pronger suggested that it was physics that led to the injury -- he is tall and Holmstrom is not -- and that the overzealous Canadian media were at the heart of his one-game suspension.

Sunday, moments after the decision was handed down by the league, Pronger was slightly more contrite. He did not blame the media and seemed to accept the consequences for his actions.

"I've obviously been in front of them before and now I'm a repeat offender," said Pronger, who has been suspended by the league seven times in his career. "And they did the right thing here. It's a situation where there was a head blow, and that's obviously something they're trying to crack down on. And I don't blame them in any way."

This notion that Pronger is powerless to control himself, as though he has some nasty DNA that cannot be altered, is baloney.

This isn't a gambling problem or a drinking problem or some other clinical issue. This is a player who simply indulges himself with reckless behavior. Look around the league. Zdeno Chara, all 6-foot-9 of him, was a recent Norris Trophy nominee, but he doesn't resort to the kinds of behavior that has marked Pronger's play. Neither did Larry Robinson, perhaps the greatest big-man defensemen of all time.