The Ends Justify The Means

It went unpunished last night and I really don’t expect supplemental discipline today, but Milan Lucic’s spear between the legs of Danny DeKeyser is still generating buzz.

Over at Habs Eyes on the Prize, Andrew Berkshire already dove in to the Boston media’s reaction but I want to focus on one particular quote.

Though many will bemoan Milan Lucic’s grape-busting stick work on Detroit’s Danny DeKeyser in the second period of Game 1, the simple fact is that in the Stanley Cup Playoffs the ends do justify the means.

That’s Jerard Fagerberger of the Boston Globe in his piece In Defense of Lucic’s Cheap Shot – Welcome to Playoff Hockey.

Let that quote sit in for a bit. Think about what it really means for the ends to justify the means. Think about how far that can be taken.

Danny DeKeyser shutting you down means you spear him in his manhood? What do you do to the player who scores a goal on you, elbow him in the head? Take a skate blade to the glove hand of the goalie who blanked you?

It’s an asinine justification because where do you draw the line?

We have a rulebook for a reason. Everyone lives inside it and everyone stays safe. You know what we call the kind of person who thinks the rules don’t apply to them, who skirts the law when it suits them? A sociopath.