On the eve of the 20th anniversary of Derian Hatcher shattering Jeremy Roenick's jaw with a massive hit, Roenick had an interesting suggestion for how the Nashville Predators should deal with Dallas Stars goaltender Ben Bishop. Careful, there's some language in there.

Bishop has been the MVP of the Stars opening round series thus far. This comes as no surprise. Bishop has had a Vezina Trophy caliber season, and gives the Stars a legitimate hope of playing for a Stanley Cup. According to now NBC analyst Roenick, the best way for Nashville to win this series is to injure him.

I did my best to transcribe the audio, but the justifiably angry talking over the clip makes some parts a bit rough.

"Number one they know Ben Bishop is a fragile goaltender. He's been out, it seems like every playoffs, at some point during the playoffs he goes out with an injury. Get in front of him. When there's lots of scrums going on, and you have a goaltender that's as hot as Ben Bishop, he might be the best goaltender of the year, get in front of there. Take his sight angles away. If somebody falls on somebody, there's a big scrum and something happens....

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....definitely a huge benefit towards Nashville. Since their forwards cant score, you take Ben Bishop out you you've got a little better chance of scoring."

Technically Roenick isn't wrong. If the Nashville Predators "accidentally intentionally" injure Bishop they would have a slightly better chance of scoring, but only slightly given how well Anton Khudobin has played this year. That's beside the point though.

If Brett Ritchie takes a wrench to P.K. Subban's knee the Stars chances would improve. Maybe Jamie Benn should should crosscheck Viktor Arvidsson in the face like Nazem Kadri did to Jake DeBrusk last night? That would improve the Stars chances of winning too. When you re-frame the comments in the context of other injuries it sounds much more ridiculous to suggest taking someone out in 2019.

Why is what Roenick said on the air acceptable? The league needs it's best players on the ice. No one wants Subban or Arvidsson injured whether it happens on purpose or accident. I questioned whether or not I even wanted to write those two injury sentences because I don't really want to put those ideas out there. Had Roenick said either on the air there would be justifiable outrage. How is this any different?

The problematic aspect of this is that based on his history Roenick clearly has no problem with it. He comes from an era where this was acceptable and even respected.

On April 14th, 1999 Roenick went into the corner to retrieve a puck against Derian Hatcher. Things did not go well for him. Hatcher launched himself at Roenick's face, destroying his jaw.

If you've never seen the hit, I used the word launched for a reason.

This hit was "likely" in retaliation for a hit earlier in the season by Roenick on Mike Modano that shook him up pretty well. Phoenix Coyotes coach Jim Schoenfeld sure thought so:

"It was a pre-meditated hit on the heels of the (Mike) Modano incident in Phoenix,' charged Schoenfeld. 'He left his feet and led with his elbow, banging (Roenick's) head against the glass. There's really nothing I can say as far as any suspension."

Hatcher would later term the hit "an unfortunate incident" before issuing his I'm not really sorry I hit him statement that essentially said "Roenick's hit on Modano was worse, so why would the league suspend me?"

This is the attitude the league had in 1999 during the prime of Roenick's career. Hatcher was suspended for seven games, including the first five of the playoffs. 13 year old me thought this was great. 33 year old me? Not so much. Jeopardizing the quality of life of anyone on the ice is never acceptable. Roenick was wrong. Hatcher was wrong. 13 year old me was wrong for supporting it.

Roenick's attitude towards his own hit 20 years ago should make his feelings about how the Predators should handle Bishop unsurprising. In 2010 Roenick, Hatcher, and Kevin Hatcher were inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame together.

The hit was a major story line

. Kevin Hatcher chimed in:

"He (Roenick) handled that with so much class," Kevin said. "I happened to see an interview after that and he just said, 'It's a contact sport. That's the way Big Hatch plays. He's a physical player.'

"Jeremy would be the first one to tell you he'd run him over if he had his head down coming around the net at the same time."

Roenick is being praised for not advocating for himself after getting destroyed when, in reality, Roenick advocating for himself in the aftermath would have looked ridiculous only because of the hit he put on Modano weeks earlier. Player safety should be a primary concern. In the 90's it was more of a joke than anything. Roenick was one of many players who treated it like one.

"I think it's funny, actually," Roenick said. "He and I had such great wars together. We were very passionate, and we wore our hearts on our sleeves. We played the game the way it's supposed to be played -- with grit and tenacity. I looked forward to playing Derian. I looked forward to going against him and battling hard."

Passion does not imply that players need to be injured in the name of "doing whatever it takes" to win a game. This mentality still lingers in hockey, but it isn't nearly as strong as it used to be. Roenick promoted it yesterday in an unacceptable way. There is no place in the modern NHL for intentionally injuring anyone. It would be naive to suggest that it doesn't happen or isn't attempted occasionally, but having a TV personality representing the league advocating for it in 2019 during a broadcast is not ok.