Terry O’Neill wanted to make something very clear: The NHL’s indefinite suspension of Slava Voynov following his arrest on domestic violence charges is a positive first step. That’s it.

O’Neill, the president of the National Organization for Women, believes it can’t be the final step the league takes in cases like this.

“I suppose it is progress provided that it’s not temporary. That they’re responding quickly and decidedly in their view is a good sign,” O’Neill told ESPN.com on Monday. “I want to sound a huge alarm and raise a huge red flag about their response. I don’t know if the suspension would keep her safe.”

The safety of the victim, O’Neill suggests, should be the league’s priority. Then comes a larger examination of how the league treats domestic abuse.

“The woman’s safety and economic security must be the paramount concern of the NHL,” she said. “The acceptable response first of all is: Get evidence. Do they have information? Ask about her safety. What is she doing to stay safe? What does she need in order to stay safe? Ask about her financial security. What does she need to stay secure? Then the next thing they should be asking is what do we do next?”

The counter to this argument is that the league is a business, that asking it do to anything more gives it responsibility and power it shouldn’t have. That this debate is being held at all is another indication that the landscape in sports has changed since the Ray Rice case. It’s brought domestic violence to the forefront of discussion in sports, a debate that is now shifting to the NHL following Voynov’s arrest.

“Ray Rice has changed everything,” said sports lawyer Eric Macramalla, a partner at Gowlings, a Canadian law firm, and legal analyst for TSN.

The NHL deserves credit for its quick action in the Voynov case, but what it does next is just as important.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was asked recently about the potential need for a domestic abuse policy, and he said the league takes it on a case-by-case basis. The different handling of the Voynov case as opposed to the Semyon Varlamov case is evidence of this. It’s also clear that the league is well aware of how public perception and awareness has changed on this front over the past year.

The CBA, specifically the second portion of Section 18-A.5, currently gives the NHL all kinds of leeway when it comes to suspending a player following an arrest:

The League may suspend the Player pending the League's formal review and disposition of the matter where the failure to suspend the Player during this period would create a substantial risk of material harm to the legitimate interests and/or reputation of the League.

That it’s so subjective could open the NHL up to the possibility of a grievance by the NHLPA. The second potential risk is that Voynov is ultimately exonerated and sues the league because the mere suspension by the NHL following the arrest suggests guilt and harmed his earning ability.

The NHL knows this, and the fact that Voynov was still suspended is an indication that it has enough information to make this call so quickly and decisively.

Following the Ray Rice case, the NFL toughened its domestic violence policy with automatic penalties for violators, including a six-week unpaid suspension for any player who violates the domestic violence policy. A second incident would lead to a lifetime ban.

This may be a path that the NHL ultimately follows.

“I think it’s inevitable that they’re going to have a domestic abuse policy in place,” Macramalla told ESPN.com. “What might help the NHL is a sound and reasonable decision based on the facts and circumstances on this specific case.”

If there is going to be a change in policy, the key is finding one that is collectively bargained for between the NHL and the NHLPA, unlike the NFL did with its new policy. The more specific and objective the policy, where clear punishments are identified depending on the situation, the less the league opens itself up to criticism of fairness.

The more attention these cases get on the sporting landscape, the more O’Neill says she’d love to have the power to require answers to questions she now has of professional sports leagues. Because she still has many.

“For instance, what is the nature of the relationship between the security personnel of the leagues and the police and the prosecutor’s office? Who calls whom? How often do they speak? I want details,” she said.

That’s just the start. She wants to know how many women have gone to the players' associations or the leagues' human resource departments asking for help because of abuse. What was the response?

She wants to know whether or not the leagues are conducting studies that might link traumatic brain injuries to violence at home. If so, what are the leagues doing about it? She wants to know what the leagues are doing to keep family members safe from violence.

“Those are the kinds of questions I would like all these athletic leagues to be considering,” O’Neill said.

As much as the NHL and its players deserve credit for avoiding trouble a majority of the time -- as the commissioner pointed out recently -- the Voynov arrest is further proof that hockey isn’t isolated from the real problems that impact other sports, that impact those who follow the sport.

The reality is that professional sports -- and how those who run them react to these problems -- help shape the culture in the U.S. It probably shouldn’t be that way, but it is.

That’s why it can’t be business as usual. O’Neill believes those making the decisions at the top should take a serious, hard look at how domestic violence is handled as a league, to take a moment of self-reflection to see how their decisions impact others.

“I wish leagues would start doing this,” she said.