It turns out the N&O's recent analysis of NHL suspensions was just the tip of the iceberg. What happened after that showed that the NHL's disciplinary apparatus is flawed beyond repair.

By overruling itself and suspending Anaheim Ducks defenseman Chris Pronger for his skate-stomp on Vancouver Canucks forward Ryan Kesler, then ignoring its own standards by giving Pronger an abbreviated eight-game suspension, the league called into question the very justice it claims to provide.

Let's start with the numbers. Updating the statistics the N&O compiled, the NHL has issued 51 discretionary suspensions since the lockout. Sixteen of those have been for fouls committed against Canadian teams -- 12 involving the three teams in eastern Canada -- while only five players from Canadian teams have been suspended.

The NHL had gone almost two months without suspending a player. Perhaps spurred to action by the N&O's inquiries, discipline czar Colin Campbell, the league's executive vice president and director of hockey operations, suspended four players in the three days before the article ran in the paper.

While the sample isn't big enough to hold up under any legitimate statistical analysis, it does paint an apocryphal picture that validates what many have believed for years: The saturation coverage north of the border influences the way the league dispenses discipline.

It's what psychologists call the "observation bias." We're all unduly influenced by what we see every day. The NHL, it appears, is as well.

Look no further than Pronger's suspension. Had producers from Vancouver's own pay-per-view broadcast not found a discarded tape with the incriminating angle in another broadcast truck, and had that angle not been replayed ad nauseam in Canada, Pronger would still be playing.

Perhaps more disturbing, however, is Pronger's suspension itself. Only Chris Simon has been suspended more often than Pronger among active players, and Simon received 30 games for his stomp earlier this season. Pronger gets eight games because ... he won the Norris Trophy?

The problem with the NHL's discipline system is that it is based on the arbitrary judgment of one man placed in an impossible position, given no guidelines by his bosses and asked to take the full burden of adjudication and sentencing upon himself.

An old-school hockey man who nevertheless pushed through the league-saving officiating reforms that opened up the game coming out of the lockout, Campbell is an emotional ex-coach who offers a refreshing, unvarnished perspective in a league that is all too often lawyered to death.

But he has been asked to do a job that requires the pragmatism of a politician and the wisdom of a Supreme Court justice -- a resume beyond the reach of most mortals. It's like leaving the selection and seeding of the NCAA Tournament field to one person.

Going forward, the NHL needs to set guidelines for supplementary discipline and to ensure that they are followed. To remove any hint of impropriety, the job should be done by a three-person panel that would include Campbell or his eventual replacement as director of hockey operations, a lawyer appointed by the league and a recently retired ex-player, on a one-year term, appointed by the NHL Players Association.

That would make the most of Campbell's hockey experience while ensuring such a critical part of the game is handled thoughtfully and appropriately. Major League Soccer has a panel of similar composition, so the NHL would hardly be stepping into the unknown.

What we've seen this season makes it clear that a kangaroo court is no way to discourage frontier justice.

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