OHL suspend London Knights player Landon Sim for name calling

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Tom Banks
May 16, 2024 (7:32 PM)

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On the ice, no matter what league it is, things get competitive and players will often say things to chirp, but now, it appears the CHL is cracking down on that.

The landscape of the world and especially hockey is changing drastically over the course of the past few decades, but now a recent incident in the OHL has called into question whether or not that has gone too far. During a matchup between the Saginaw Spirit and the London Knights, a Spirit defenseman reportedly threatened Sim, son of former NHLer John Sim, to which he responded by calling the opponent a name.

Sure, on the surface, it's something that you wouldn't say to someone on a normal basis, but on the ice things have been like that for quite some time, as trash-talking has always been commonplace, but now, the CHL has officially suspended Sim for five-games for the incident.

London Knights Forward Landon Sim was suspended five-games for calling another player on the opposing team a "p****"

What in the world is the OHL thinking?

In general, players are encouraged to treat their opponents with respect, but if the report on this is that the opponent began the trash talk, a suspension to Sim is simply a strange, questionable decision.

It has just come out that the reasoning for Landon Sim's (@landonsim) five-game suspension during the OHL playoffs is because he called an opponent a "p****" after he was threatened.

A Saginaw Spirit defenseman threatened to break Sim's shoulder (an injured shoulder) after he made contact with a forward during warm-ups. This led to an alleged response from Sim, saying «No you won't; you're too much of a p**** to do that.»

The Spirit defenseman went over to referee Joe Monette and repeated what Sim had allegedly said. After conferring with a linesman, the decision was made to give Sim a game misconduct for unsportsmanlike conduct. Next up was the OHL handing out a five-game suspension to Sim, citing the league's «diversity, maltreatment, and bullying» policy. With the suspension being fewer than 10 games, there was no avenue to appeal it.

There may be details that have yet to come out about the situation and why Sim was given a suspension, but for now this is a very questionable decision, and anytime trash talk now occurs, the league have set a precedent that they will need to uphold moving forward.

Source: Blade of Steel

London Knights Sim suspended five games for name calling