John Moore faces lengthy suspension from Stephane Quintal, who was once suspended by the Rangers
”My heart is in Montreal.” Those 5 words earned then Rangers defenseman Stephane Quintal a suspension for “conduct detrimental to the team” back in 2000. Today, Quintal is the Head of Player Safety and is about to suspend John Moore for a high hit on Minnesota’s, Â Erik Haula.
Let’s get this straight – John Moore deserves whatever he gets for his hit. Especially considering he has now shown a tendency to lose his cool in hockey games. The point of this article is to simply point out past history and how whatever Quintal decides will be put under a microscope by hockey journalists and bloggers everywhere.
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Neil Smith lost his job thanks to a slew of terrible signings that saw the Rangers tank in the standing back in 2000. At the forefront, Stephane Quintal along with Sylvan Lefebvre were simply brutal on defense.
Late in the season, John Muckler was a bitter angry man behind the Rangers bench and snapping at every veteran on the team, including Quintal who asked for a trade to Montreal as early as November.  The 31-year-old, was $3.95 million and playing like he wanted to get out of NY -bad!
Quintal so wanted to get out of a Blueshirt that he even started calling out his own teammates. He told a French paper, La Presse that Petr Nedved was not a #1 center in this league and that the Rangers “had too many chiefs and not enough indians.”
So today, John Moore will stand in front of Stephane Quintal and be handed a suspension of likely 5 games or more. The question then becomes, if the penalty is too severe (say around 10 games) – was it because deep down inside he may still harbor some anger towards a Rangers organization that embarrassed him and sent him home?
We doubt it – because we all try and be a professional as we can when it comes to our jobs. Still, we are only human and can make mistakes. On the flip side, what if he only gives John Moore 3 or less? Will that make some question his reasoning why? Maybe consider it an apology for his conduct 14 years ago?
Silly – yes, but still it makes one go, hmm.
For more on Quintal’s suspension with the Rangers check out these great stories:
NY TIMES –Â Rangers, Out of the Playoffs, Suspend Disgruntled Quintal
CANOE, CA –Â Quintal wants out; Rangers suspend him
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