The NHL playoffs have been magnificent. They have also been marred by the goon’s return. The Leafs’ Tie Domi’s elbow to the head of the Devils’ Scott Niedermayer, a cheap shot at game’s end that knocked Niedermayer out, and the never-ending reticence of the NHL to squash the ugliness, has become THE story. Domi has been suspended for the remainder of the playoffs.

He should have received a lifetime suspension.

Domi is first and foremost an enforcer in the NHL – a goon. He can play the game, but that’s not what he gets paid for and everyone associated with the NHL knows it.

Niedermayer said on Monday that Domi threatened him in a previous game.

“[Domi] said he was going to take a suspension on me,” Niedermayer said.

The threat came because Domi didn’t like a check Niedermayer put on him in game two of their playoff series.

As with fighting in the NHL, until the league just says no, cheap shots will continue. Domi had a chance to injure a key player on the opposing team in the playoffs. He did. The suspension he received was too little, too late.

Equally unacceptable was the action of Toronto GM Pat Quinn who shoved a photographer of the Toronto Sun on Friday as the photographer attempted to capture a picture of Domi getting on an elevator with Quinn at the NHL hearing on the matter.

The NHL has remained silent, first saying the matter was under review by prosecutors in Toronto for possible criminal action. The photographer wants the charges dropped. Nothing prevents the NHL from acting on its own in a non-criminal review of the incident. They have not.

For those who want to find a reason to ridicule hockey, the Domi incident is about a decade’s worth of fodder. The game deserves better.

The NHL instituted enforcement of rules this past year designed to open the game up for the skilled players. Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux have long called for the abolition of fighting in hockey to rid the game not only of the fights, but the players hired to engage in them. The NHL has undertaken only selective listening.

The Domi matter was another chance for the NHL to take a bold and definitive step to define the league in terms of skill and effort rather than fights and cheap shots. It is another opportunity lost.

Some say the NHL had to remember that the NHL Players’ Association would have protested a lifetime ban. Maybe, and so what?

Scott Niedermayer is a member of the association as well. His career was threatened by the incident.

Quinn’s action was “goon-ism” off the ice. We all have the right to assault a reporter for covering a story in a public place when we don’t want the story covered, right?

The NHL will have to live with one decision that says one can act to injure an opponent and weigh whether the limited punishment to follow is a price worth paying.

The NHL will have to live with another decision that says team coaches and officers live by rules apart from the rest of society.

Domi gets a few games off. Quinn gets off. The NHL gets to pay the price every time Quinn sends Domi on the ice next year.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and NBC sportscaster.