The NHL General Managers meeting has been going on and the hot topic of the day has been hits to the head. Following what seems like a spate of concussions to NHL players following checks to their skulls, the NHL is finally trying to crack down on the incident and it couldn’t come a minute too soon. The GM’s meeting cannot invent new rules for the game but they can go a long way to making them happen and today they done just that when they decided the following:

“A lateral, back pressure or blindside hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and or the principal point of contact is not permitted. A violation of the above will result in a minor or major penalty and shall be reviewed for possible supplemental discipline.”

“We felt there is a degree of responsibility – moreso to the player receiving the hit – when a guy’s coming straight at you. But it’s that blindside hit that we find is so disturbing and it’s tough to protect yourself in our game, with the speed,” said NHL senior vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell.

“When we changed this game, took the red line out, took the holding and the hooking and everything out of the a game, we increased the speed of this game tenfold. In doing that we also increased the collision force in these hits, but our managers felt that a north-south hit when a shoulder hits the head is acceptable,” explained Campbell.

The proposed rule will have to go before the competition and if ratified would come into place from next season.

I’ve long called for some kind of change to the rules on hitting to the head and this one seems to be about right. The latest head shot incident was in the news as late as this past weekend when Pittsburgh Penguin’s forward Matt Cooke slammed his shoulder into the head of Boston Bruins star Marc Savard knocking him out for the season with concussion. But it was the style of the hit that raised alarm and forced this topic to the front and centre of the GM’s meeting to the point that they had to come forward with a change because words like, “We talked about it and will talk further in future meetings,” was not going to fly. The hit was from the blind side, from an angle that Savard had little chance of avoiding as he followed through on his shot.

The point of checking in Hockey is to remove the man from the puck and while the game is incredibly fast and it is easy to hit the guy after he has released the puck, hitting him from an angle were he is not going to see you coming regardless of whether his head is up or not, should not be allowed.

The first lesson they teach you in Hockey before they teach you how to hold a stick is “to keep your head up at all times.” Indeed. Skate across the blue-line with your head down and you’re game to have it taken off by a bruising defenseman. In the case of Savard though and the future cases that the league are now going to outlaw I don’t think the player can be balmed for not keeping their head up. No player in the history of the game would have done it different and Cooke hit him from a blind side that without a mirror on the side of his helmet he couldn’t have seen. Savard can hardly hug the boards and refuse to come inside to take a shot incase someone nails him.

Worry not though all you lovers of physical hockey of which I am one. This is going to take away from the physical aspect of the game but rather put an end to them dozen or so hits that have concussed an unsuspecting player. Unsuspecting is the key word here and that is the kind of player that needs protected. Remember the hit by Scott Stevens on Eric Lindros were he lined him up coming across the blue-line with his head down but coming in face-to-face with Stevens? That will still be allowed, and rightly so. The game needs that physical play, one that takes a lot of skill by the player throwing the hit and one that could have been avoided by the player getting hit. Think of the Winter Olympics just a few weeks ago when Ovechkin nailed Jagr in open ice, laying out Jagr, concussing him and leading to a Russia goal. That was textbook hitting and if you get hit in the head in the process of a hit like that then so be it. Nobody who is a fan of Hockey should want to see hits like that removed from the game. Ovechkin hit Jagr’s head, shoulder, chest, hips – the entire body. What you see happen to Cooke the other night has no place in the game.

So from next season you can expect to see penalties and stiff suspensions for those blindsiding their fellow professionals with no regard for their well being while good hard, clean and fair hitting by those who really know how to hit will remain in the game keeping it exciting, but making it a little safer.

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