Staple: NHL needs a policy on sexual taunts

When the Islanders' James Wisniewski made an obscene gesture in the direction of the Rangers' Sean Avery three weeks ago, the incident quickly went viral on the Internet, and Colin Campbell had another wrinkle to his already thankless job.

Campbell, the NHL's disciplinarian, ultimately decided to suspend Wisniewski for two games. It was a good move.

The next move, for when the league's general managers get together in March to discuss new rules, is for the NHL to take steps to punish players who use sexual slurs, especially those with homophobic connotations.

That sounds difficult. "We don't want to become the morality police," Campbell told Newsday. "It's up to the [general] managers to provide some guidelines."

The NHL already has guidelines on certain words. Racial taunts are banned. Why not sexual ones as well?

In 2008, Avery was suspended six games and banished to anger management for making a sexual reference off the ice; NHL commissioner Gary Bettman wondered aloud how he would explain such a thing to his pre-teen daughter.

Society is changing. Bullying of teens, gay and straight, has become the focus of national outrage, and the NHL would be wise to get in step with the movement.

The NFL tried to crack down on taunting, instituting a 15-yard penalty for excessive trash talk. That wasn't really defined, and no specific words were deemed out of bounds. This season, jawing of any kind seems to be more acceptable as football focuses on injurious hits rather than words.

The NHL has that problem, too. It's a violent game, and Campbell spends a much greater portion of his time disciplining players for illegal hits than hurtful words or ugly gestures.

On the same day that Wisniewski, the gesture-maker, received his suspension, Chicago's Niklas Hjalmarsson was punished for the same number of games for delivering a blind-side hit that left Buffalo's Jason Pominville with a concussion.

There were those who expressed outrage and/or ridicule over the idea that the penalty for a gesture would carry the same weight as one for physical injury. But Campbell weighed the issues and did what he believed was right.

"We do take our cues from what's going on in the world," Campbell said. "That's why ethnic slurs are out of bounds. It's a matter of, 'Where's our society at? Where's the culture at?' "

If that's true, it's time to change the hockey culture to get in line with society. No more excuses.