GMs are united against head shots, but will the players do the same?
NHL general managers are united in their effort to rid their league of blindside hits to the head.
Thank heavens for that.
As long as players continue to show complete and utter disregard for one another, somebody needs to stand up and shout: STOP OR ELSE!
Or else what? Or else, you’ll be suspended and along with the time off comes a significant loss of salary.
Just ask San Jose Sharks’ captain Joe Thornton, normally a peaceful player, but one who delivered a blindside head shot last week and was subsequently suspended for two games. He lost more than $77,000 in salary.
Phoenix Coyotes’s captain Shane Doan was suspended Oct. 18 for three games, for a blindside hit to the head that resulted in him losing $73,000 in salary.
The league has also issued two fines – to Ottawa’s Nick Foligno and Edmonton’s Tom Gilbert – for blindside hits to the head this season.
Pretty much everyone who emerged from the meeting Tuesday afternoon in Toronto, agreed the NHL’s crackdown on blindside hits to the head is a work in progress, but something that is very worthwhile.
"We can’t forget the big picture," said Colin Campbell, the NHL’s senior vice-president and director of hockey operations. "The big picture is to save careers and reduce this kind of concussion. Fifty percent of the concussions came from (hits from) the blind side."
"We know there’s going to be questions on what’s a blindside hit, or was it a direct shoulder to the head, but we’re dealing with it. If it means losing a player for half a game because it might have been the wrong call (by the referee), the greater good here is we want the players to learn. Today we showed a couple of hits; one by Zdeno Chara (of the Bruins) and the other by David Backes (of the Blues) where we think they could have followed through with their hit, but they seemed to hold up and make an effort to go shoulder to shoulder."
In other words, some players are getting the message.
Along the way, there will indeed be questionable calls by the refs. The Sharks did not agree with the referee’s assessment on the Thornton hit (he was ejected from the game), nor did they agree with the two-game suspension. They appealed the decision, but it was held up by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
For the record, Thornton stepped out of the penalty box and nailed David Perron of the Blues who was racing through the neutral zone. Perron did not see the hit coming. In the past, that would have been considered a good hit, like when Buffalo’s Michael Peca nailed Toronto’s Tie Domi a few years ago, with a similar hit after stepping out of the penalty box. Peca was not penalized on the play. Many would have suggested Domi and Perron, were least partially at fault for having their heads down.
The thing is, just like when the league cracked down on obstruction at the start of the 2005-06 season, we are talking about a change in culture. Players are bigger, faster and stronger than ever. Equipment is so sophisticated, instead of protecting the individual wearing it, it can injure others.
While driving home from the GM meetings, I happened to hear a radio interview with Wendel Clark, one of the toughest players to ever skate in the NHL. It is said often players don’t respect one another and you could certainly make a strong case that it is true. But Clark took it a step further saying, "Players don’t respect themselves." Clark explained the equipment is so sophisticated today players feel invincible.
Good point.
The problem is we have created a generation of players, who think nothing about hammering an unsuspecting opponent, regardless of what the consequences might be. Concussions are on the rise and the NHL is taking the steps it feels are necessary to make the game safer to play, without completely removing the physicality.
The league’s initiative is a good one. Think back to the crackdown on obstruction, there were growing pains, remember? The first few months of the ’05-06 season, was a steady parade of players to the penalty box, followed by all kinds of whining and complaining from players, coaches, managers and fans alike.
This initiative faces growing pains, too.
"It takes time for players to get conscious about it," said Vancouver GM Mike Gillis. "It takes time for officials to get a feel for that massive a rule change. Overall I think everyone is satisfied with how it’s going and are looking forward for it to continue to evolve and improve. Clearly, players know what interference is and they didn’t quite know what it was coming out of the lockout. I think players will start to make conscious decisions to target the body and not the head and I think that is the place that everybody wants to get to."
Added Boston GM Peter Chiarelli: "This is a work in progress and we are continuing to see it evolve. It’s like any new law that is put into place; you want to see a series or precedents and comparables. Going into this we knew there would be some difficulty, especially from the ref’s perspective, deciding what falls within the parameters we have laid down. We looked at a bunch of examples of those that have led to discipline already and those that in the past may or may not have been subject to discipline. It’s part of the process, part of the evolution of this thing. I think it’s a real positive thing we have put into place."
