Ivan Demidov should lose his licence. Two numbers attached to his name right now are the kind that get ordinary people suspended every day, and the only unusual thing about his situation is that he can afford a lawyer to fight it.
During the Olympic break in February, Demidov was clocked at 145 km/h in a 100 km/h zone on Highway 40 in Trois-Rivières, and three demerit points landed on his record. A second ticket over the summer, 111 km/h in a 70 km/h zone, pushed his probationary licence past the demerit limit. Now he's appealing that second ticket to hang onto it.
The second number is the one his defenders would rather skip past. A 70 km/h zone is the kind of road with on-ramps, off-ramps and people merging, and he was doing better than 40 over. The 145 in a 100 gets waved off as highway-speed bravado. Put both inside the same calendar year and you've got a pattern.
The case for going easy on him amounts to this: everybody speeds, and the outrage is a cultural hang-up. Fine, everybody creeps over the limit. Nobody doing 111 in a 70 is creeping. The demerit system exists so one mistake costs you points and a second mistake costs you the licence, and it doesn't carve out an exception for guys with a slick car and a good season ahead of them. The rules worked exactly as designed. Demidov just hit the wall they put there for everyone.
That should bother Habs fans too, who are waiting on him to return from a lower-body injury expected to keep him out two to four weeks. He's wealthy enough that a fine is a rounding error to his bank account. The only penalty with any teeth is the suspension, and that's the one he's paying a lawyer to make disappear. He's fighting hardest against the one consequence that might actually change his behavior.
There's an easy fix here that doesn't involve a courtroom. He plays for an organization with teammates, staff and the budget to put a driver in the front seat whenever he wants one. A driver who can't keep an Audi RS6 under 110 on a 70 road shouldn't be the one deciding when he's safe to drive.
He isn't being treated too harshly. The harsh thing would be waiting until the third number is a crash report. Take the licence and make him earn it back like anyone else. Spare us the appeal.
