Kyle, I think that was a legal hit as well, except for the interference angle as well. I also think Richards’ hit was completely legal, and sometimes you just catch a guy, head down or not, just after he releases the pass. He is the type of player who likes to “seperate a guy from the puck” as he says, and typically isn’t dirty and will hit you as long as you have the puck. He just hits hard all game. Ovechkin and he go after each other all game most nights they play each other, and it’s fun to watch.

Maybe also throw in there a progressive fine/suspension, but not only for a player, but the whole team? That way, if you are taking cheap shots, it’s not just about you but your team. That should help the players police their own locker rooms, as well as themselves, hopefully leading to more respect.

Let’s break the hit down in 2 ways:

1- The the leadup and the contact itself was not illegal. Watching the replay, I don’t believe Kronwall caught him in the head. It was just a thunderous hit. He didn’t travel very far to make that hit either.

2- Havlat never played the puck. At least that play could have been called interference.

If I endorsed the hit then, I may be wrong in that stance. If Havlat gets up and resumes play, we probably say it was a clean hit and never talk about it again. But because Havlat was knocked out we get hot & bothered by it. You mentioned a classic conundrum – what if Chara hits a small guy? How can he avoid hitting a guy in the head? You have to preach accountability. The same way a player has to be accountable for his stick at all times, so should he be responsible for the rest of his body. There has to be a way to teach that you don’t have to bash a guy to be effective.

There’s no easy solution to this. How do you get guys who are trained to play at 100% to only hit a guy at 75%?

I think the NHL over the past 20 years made the mistake of building rinks that were the same size as they’ve always been. If we’re stuffing bigger, stronger, faster players in to the same small area, the collisions are going to be more violent and devastating? If the ice surface were made bigger, these types of hits would shrink as players try cover more ground and don’t look for the killshot all the time.

Shane, You raise some very good questions and I definitely think there will need to be some component that involves players respecting the health of the opponent. Thank you for the lengthy and well thought out comment!

How do we know if someone has an intent to injure? I know in my career I legally hit guys and they might of gotten knocked out or broken an arm etc. I know if I tried that now I would be the one getting hurt But I wasn’t trying to hurt them. I was trying to take them off the puck hard, which all players are taught.

I really only see two options:

1. Bring back the hold up in certain areas of the ice, but no stick on a guy. But you can skate in front of him and make him take a different angle to the player.
2. Make players play the puck each time before they go in for a hit. If they don’t then call a penalty. This would be a tough change for the players, but it might eliminate the sole focus of finishing a player extremely hard and not worrying about the puck.

Looking forward to seeing what others think.

Charging is usually distance traveled, still skating thru the check and/or leaving one’s feet (aka quite a few of Ovechkin’s “big hits”). If a guy is skating thru center ice, sees the puck carrier and turns, skates for ten feet, stops skating for a few more and knocks the guy on hit a$$ with a good shoulder check, is that a penalty? Worthy of fines or suspensions? Or if the guy gets knocked out, is it then worthy of those penalties? What if it’s Chara hitting Briere and his elbow ends up in Danny’s head? Who determines intent? Was he just trying to get the puck, or like Kronwall, was he totally focused on hitting the guy? What if it turns out like Lindros, the player you hit was prone to the injury? Do you get the money and time back somehow?

If you create a larger definition of Boarding, when is it ok to hit near the boards? Is a venerable position now going to be changed? The rules states “violently THROWN” into the boards, as in from a distance, so hitting someone when they are up against them doesn’t apply, unless you are clearly trying to put them in the second row (and is typically called as charging anyway). Can somehow the refs say ANY/EVERY hit is boarding? Growing up in many different sports, it seemed sometimes the best way to get hurt yourself was to go halfway, or to try and holdup at the last second, since you are then in a weird/venerable position yourself. It’s tough thing to put in the back of a players mind, “Can I finish my check” every second of a game, as it would ruin the overall game.

I really don’t know that there is a way to regulate this on the ice with your aforementioned increased speed of the game. The refs do a good job, but I constantly wonder how the center ice official is calling a penalty behind the goal line when a replay clearly shows the the closer official was watching the same play and didn’t (for better or worse at times). I clearly remember years ago sitting on a couch watching Petr Svoboda bleed from his mouth, totally unconscious after a brutal hit from Marc Bureau. I was with four other hockey fans–one a Rangers fan–and we sat all there in shocked silence, all of us literally thinking the same thing; “He’s dead”. If you ever see the replay of that, watch Bureau skate about 20 feet, tracking in on Petr the whole time, and as he gets closer to him, pulling his arms fully across his body in one direction and then violently thrusting his elbow into the head of Svoboda. And then realize the ref didn’t call intent to injure.

I understand the need for protection from these hits, as I have watched Primeau, Lindros and others lose time and careers from some of them. And I don’t really know what the answer is, but respect among players is definitely high on the list. I have always thought one idea is if you get a suspension for a hit with intent, and the player was injured, you should be out for as long as he is, plus your suspension. It’s going to be a tough rope to walk for the GMs as they try and find a way to combat this. Let me know what you thoughts on those hits are.

I agree with Tyler, the rules (or the officials “case book”) should be clarified. Nothing’s perfect, but they should get this fixed before someone is seriously injured. We already have the legacy or Lindros, Lafontaine, and Primeau.

My final point is a bit picky… but your physics is a little off. F=MA is the amount of force required to get an object moving, once the object is moving it requires less effort to keep moving (just like skating… it’s harder to start than keep moving). The real issue today is momentum: Mo=MaV. Mass times Velocity. Today’s players are both bigger and faster. So the momentum they generate is huge.