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The National Hockey League took the proper first step Friday, in suspending the New York Islanders' Chris Simon indefinitely, pending a hearing with chief disciplinarian Colin Campbell.

Simon is entitled to his day in court, the same as any other player. Before Campbell throws the book at him, he'll want to hear Simon's version of what happened in Thursday night's game against the New York Rangers — why, after Ryan Hollweg checked him into the boards, Simon got back to his feet, saw Hollweg in his sights and swung his stick at his head. It was a reaction, as opposed to a calculated assault; and Simon may not have been in full control of his faculties, after having absorbed a solid hit from Hollweg seconds before.

All of that might help explain why Simon did what he did; it doesn't, for a moment, forgive him his actions.

Usually, when it comes to supplementary discipline, the NHL is toughest on stick swingers, on the grounds that the stick is not meant to be deployed as a weapon — and when it is, it can result in serious injury, or worse.

Even if that was not his normal modus operandi, Campbell needs to send a strong message here — not just to Simon, but also to the league as a whole. There has been a gradual lack of respect that crept into the game the last little while and the signs have been increasingly obvious.

The most celebrated recent example was Cam Janssen's late hit on the Maple Leafs' Tomas Kaberle that put the latter on the sidelines indefinitely, but there have been others too. Janssen received a three-game suspension; effectively, receiving a week off.

One-, two- or three game suspensions generally do not resonate with NHL players in any meaningful way (unless it's Ottawa Senators' goaltender Ray Emery, who was in the midst of a nice personal roll when he got dinged last month and hasn't quite been the same player ever since).

No, a suspension needs to approach or spill into the double figures before it makes any sort of an impression. Then you get the players' attention on a couple of levels. First, they're suspended without pay (and the days of teams quietly slipping the money back to the players as a post-season bonus are long gone). Moreover, you also put their jobs in jeopardy, especially the fringe guys, the ones like Simon and Janssen who, from game to game and night to night, really can't afford to let someone else take their place in the line-up, for fear that they may never get their jobs back.

Maybe a record of the league being hard on crime wouldn't have prevented the Simon slash on Hollweg anyway. Sometimes, no matter how disciplined a team demands that its players be, they do something in the spur of the moment, in the heat of the battle, that they come to regret after the fact. That probably will never change. In some ways, Simon's actions were wholly selfish, given the fact that the Islanders effectively lost the game on the ensuing power play and enabled the Rangers to gain a valuable point in the playoff race. If the Islanders miss out on post-season play by a single point, you could convincingly trace it back to that one moment in time, last Thursday, when a player put a desire for his own personal pound of flesh ahead of the team's goals.

In the larger picture, what you want to do is weed out the calculated violence in the game (think Marty McSorley on Donald Brashear; or Todd Bertuzzi on Steve Moore). The Janssen play was nothing like that, but there are still ways of effectively policing that sort of hit too. When Janssen lowered the boom on Kaberle, he had enough time to pull up, but just didn't, presumably because he wanted to send a physical message by "finishing" his check.

Maybe there would have been a different outcome if the league had been issuing more significant penalties for that type of action. In other words, if Janssen knew there was a possibility of a five- or an eight-game suspension, he would have had enough time to ponder the consequences of his actions and maybe would have skated by, or delivered a brush-back check, rather than a full-bore, body blow.

Funny how it was the Rangers' Sean Avery who put himself on the side of the angels post-game Thursday night, giving his own view of what would constitute effective supplementary discipline against Simon. "I think that's just as bad as what Marty McSorley did to Brashear," Avery told reporters. "You can't just two-hand a guy in the face with your stick."

Avery went on to say: "Let's just see if Colin Campbell finally does something about this stuff and doesn't give him three games like he gave that other meathead from New Jersey."

Simon's personal history — and the fact that he's been suspended five previous times by the NHL — isn't going to help his cause with Campbell, Avery's comments notwithstanding. The Islanders have 15 regular-season games remaining. It wouldn't be surprising to see Simon suspended for all 15.

The NHL knows it has an opportunity to send a strong message here. The feeling, from this corner, is Campbell will make the most of it.