The Raffi Torres suspension is a sign that it's now fully on the players to be responsible.
In the new National Hockey League, it is Raffi Torres' responsibility to look out for Jordan Eberle. It is the fourth-liner's responsibility to keep the first-liner non-concussed.
The right to punish Eberle for having his head down officially was eliminated on Thursday, in what we see as a landmark suspension handed down by NHL vice president Colin Campbell.
We're not being sarcastic here. I can't recall a cleaner check ever getting a longer suspension than the four games - the final two Vancouver Canucks regular season games, and their first two playoff contests - Torres was levied Thursday. And Torres has no priors, having never been suspended before.
This represents not only a new standard, but also a new level of culpability for the hitter that so many have asked for from Campbell and the NHL.
We have been writing for ages, it seems, that the only way we're going to turn this concussion thing around is for the players to take on the responsibility. If you've been reading this column, you've read this quote from Jarome Iginla that, for me, sums up the debate:
"We know what we're doing on hits from behind, and we know what we're doing [when opponents are in] more vulnerable positions," Iginla said of he and his brethren. "It's not that fast. Guys know what they're doing on 90-plus percent of the hits."
But even I have to admit, I never thought it would come to this.
The hit Torres laid on Eberle Wednesday in Edmonton Watch hit here has, for as long as hockey players have gathered to play full-contact hockey, been considered a clean, hard check.
The play that Eberle made - extending to reach for a puck, leaving himself vulnerable for Torres to abandon the puck and choose the hit instead - has for as long as I have covered hockey represented a textbook example of putting yourself in a vulnerable position.
Torres' elbow was in tight and he never left his feet. It is - or should we say, was - a textbook clean hit.
From this point on, Torres has to realize when Eberle has put himself in a position where a body check could do long-term damage, he has to let up.
"Obviously I put myself in a pretty vulnerable position, reaching for the puck," Eberle admitted prior to sentencing. "He blindsides me a bit, we'll let the league decide."
This is the game that NHL players have to get their heads around, if we're ever going to come out of the concussion era.
But we all know where this is heading, don't we?
If the fear of being crushed by Torres is lifted, what is to stop the Eberles of the NHL from playing half the game with their heads down?
Like the multitude of NHL defencemen who - since the hitting from behind rule was added to the rulebook - have chosen to play the game in that dangerous, back-to-the-play fashion.
If the league is now defending Eberle's right to have his head down, must the referees also be given the tool to punish him for abusing that protection? Is there a diving equivalent for playing the game with your head down?
There should be a penalty for those D-men who, at the last second, turn their back to play, I've always felt.
"It was a fine hit," said Torres after the game against Edmonton. "He was obviously in a vulnerable position, but at the end of the day I have to finish my hit or else I am out of a job. If they are trying to get rid of clean hits like that, what's this league going to be in a couple of years?"
It's going to be a league, Raffi, where the statement: "He was obviously in a vulnerable position," is akin to saying, Guilty, your honour."
And those who say, "I have to finish my hit or else I am out of a job," had better be able to think fast enough to spot a dangerous hit before following through on it.
If they can't, then Torres is right. He, the fourth-liner, will be out of a job.
And Eberle - or Marc Savard, or Sid Crosby - the first-liner, will be gainfully, and healthily, employed.
