Oops Upside Your Head
A lateral, back pressure or blind-side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or is 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.
There’s the language of the new NHL contact handbook. I’ll have more on this later today or tomorrow. For now…some questions, some comments:
Chris Pronger, Philadelphia Flyers
“So, you’re going to let up when a guy has his head down, so then he beats you to the net and scores a goal in a big playoff game or a crucial game towards the tail end of the regular season? Then, you’re getting critiqued by the media and the fans: why didn’t you hit him? It’s a lose-lose if a player lets up on somebody and something bad happens against his team like a goal or penalty. You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.”
Dion Phaneuf, Toronto Maple Leafs
“It has nothing to do with my style of game. You can still hit right? That has no bearing on the style of play that I play. If there’s a hit in open ice, you’re allowed to do it still, that’s for sure. It’s not going to change the way that I play. I’m going to play the physical style I’ve always played.”
Niklas Kronwall, Detroit Red Wings
“I do think it’s easier said than done. I think it’s hard to determine all head shots — there are so many different situations, so many different angles when guys come in to make a hit. I think it’s hard to say, ‘Let’s ban all the head shots,’ because a lot of times, too, the guy coming in, he’s down low with his shoulder, it looks like it’s going to be a clean hit, and then at the last second, the guy who is going to take the hit, he doesn’t see it coming, and he comes down too low, and then boom, there you go. The guy who makes the hit, now he’s taking all the blame for it. I think it’ll be really hard to say just ban all the head shots.”
Colin Campbell, NHL
“We’re we are going is taking a completely legal hit now, with the shoulder, and saying from a certain aspect in the future, next year, that’s going to be an illegal hit if delivered to the head. Part two of that, which is a huge statement in the game, we’re shifting some of the responsibility from the player getting hit to the player delivering the hit, which was never part of the game. You grew up you always had to have your head up, you’d get crap from your dad if you got hit when you were watching your pass. But now there’s some responsibility on the guy delivering the hit.”
