OT: Chara's hit on Max Pacioretty

[RugbyMuffin]

Unlike the Sidney Crosby situation (and this is a Pens fan talking here) I think this hit should force the NHL to look into banning head shots.

There are no head shots in rugby, and if someone thinks that banning head shots takes away from the physicality of a game, then I would invite you to go take in a practice on a rugby pitch.

Forgive my philosophical portion of this post, but hockey, much like the world in general has to wake up to the modern ages. Just because people have been doing something for X amount of years, doesn't make it right. Maybe in the past it worked, but things change.

Yes, when hockey was playing by smaller, less atheletic, players this physical play and the rules around it made sense. But, now with more knowledge on the damage the body takes, the increase in speed, size, and abilities these old rules are doomed.

Trust me. I love big hits, and physical play. If there was such a thing as an "agitator" in rugby, well, you are looking at him.

But these hits are seriously hurting the game.

What hockey has to do, in my extremely humble opinion, is make a rule against all head shots, and enforce it. Do it for a season and see how it works. Rules can always be changed later.

But for the sake of the game something needs to be done, IMO.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

despite the outcome, this shot wasn't as bad as some others I've seen ... but I agree, the NHL does need to do something

one of my biggest issues is that punishment often seems tied to impact .... you could have identical hits create two different punishments based on if the guy skates away or is caried off

or you'll see a guy come in high and line someone up for a headshot and not succeed .... i think those need to be punished as well

finally - I think the players need to buy into it ..... if one of their guys gets tagged they want punishment, but if they cross the line everyone on the team will whine and cry about the punishment .... you can't have it both ways and until the players buy in and accept that head shots will have severe penalties regardless of who delivers them then we'll continue to see this stuff

 

[MigratingOsprey]

I should also note I fee much the same about kneeing

 

[RugbyMuffin]

Good points.

But that is just the thing. If the hit was "within the rules" and there have been many hits that have been "within the rules" that end up with players getting hurt.

And we are not talking 2 to 3 weeks, we are talking about being out for months or full seasons.

And furthermore, we are not talking about a knee injury or snapped ligaments. We are talking about guys getting knocked out, and severely concusted.

You can't have players in a sport getting knocked silly on basic, "legal" plays. Not when you play 80 games a season, and play 2 to 3 times a week.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

Yeah - they were talking about concussions and how they happen as it's a big part of the GM meetings going on right now ..... something like only 17% came on what they would deem illegal hits .... but then you have things like the rangers/islanders last night where Avery (shocking) has a pretty nasty and obvious boarding call ..... he gets two minutes and the victim gets taken out of the game - then the rangers scored a short handed goal on that PK

the islanders had an equally bad (and presumably retaliatory) boarding call later in the game

they mentioned that there have been more boarding penalties assessed than at any other point - which does help show that there is a focus on calling the penalty and delivering some on the ice punishment ........ but when a guy is a a foot or two off the boards, with his back to play and someone comes up and cross checks them between the numbers driving them face first to the bottom of the glass it seems like a minor penalty isn't really much of a deterant or penalty