FanHouse Vancouver

By the end of the day, we may know how the NHL decides to punish Philadelphia's Jesse Boulerice for having Canucks forward Ryan Kesler taste-test his stick without asking first. The predictions, naturally, are pouring in. FanHouse's Jes Golbez asks you for yours, and opines that Boulerice should be out until 2008. ESPN's EJ Hradek thinks he should receive the Downie Minimum of 20 games. William Houston of the Globe & Mail actually believes it should be a 40-gamer -- not likely, unless Boulerice was also running his own gambling ring on the side. Even Kesler appointed himself junior commissioner of the NHL for a few moments and called for a suspension of "a serious amount of games," while teammate Matt Cooke set the suspension at 25.

Suspending Boulerice is the easy part; unless the NHL seriously minimizes the incident with a paltry punishment, anywhere between 20-30 games will be seen as "getting it right." The harder part is taking the next step and punishing those who have also contributed to yet another black-eye for hockey's ever-tarnishing image. That's why it's time to...

Former Anaheim Ducks pugilist Garrett Burnett spent a short amount of time in the NHL, but made a big impact with some memorable fights against the league's heavyweights.

In just 39 NHL games, Burnett racked up an impressive 184 penalty minutes. The d00d once had 506 PIM in just one AHL season!! Quite impressive, especially if your pool counts penalty minutes.

These days, he's out of hockey, and is just looking to recover some semblance of a normal life after a nightclub assault left him nearly dead.

A former NHL hockey enforcer is suing a Delta, B.C., nightclub and two of its doormen after an alleged assault left him in hospital with brain damage and permanent injuries.

The document says the two doormen watched the fracas but did nothing to stop it - and when the men became violent, the bouncers tossed all the patrons outside, where Burnett was allegedly hit on the head with a bar stool.

The statement says he suffered injuries that left him in a coma and on life support for 20 days.

Knowing how 'doormen' (let's just call them bouncers, shall we?) act around Vancouver, this kind of behaviour is not at all surprising. Vancouver-area bounces are notorious for either standing by as people (usually gang-bangers) fight themselves tired, or joining the fracas and beating people up just for fun.

There is little accountability among the actions of many bouncers, and it would be nice for the legal system to shed a little light and do a little punishing of their own.