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Competition committee recommends head hit major for next season

Head hits became an epidemic last season in the NHL, and the league's competition committee has taken a big step toward making them a thing of the past--hopefully.

The committee passed a recommendation to the NHL Board of Governors that hits to the head result in a five-minute major penalty for next season.

NHL executive and former Red Wing Brendan Shanahan was a member of the committee and said that supplemental discipline, a.k.a suspension, will also be taken into consideration.

"In the end, we knew that we all wanted to get to the same place," said Shanahan, the NHL’s vice president of hockey and business development. "We all had the same goal. That’s why you have a committee like this—the sharing of information."

The penalty has been a long time coming, but it's far too late in the eyes of guys like Marc Savard and David Booth. Players have been advocating a penalty for a long time, but the NHL GMs basically turned a blind eye until the series of events that took place this season.  

It's disappointing that someone has to get hurt for things to get done, especially with something such as head hits, which seems like a no-brainer penalty. You've got a league where hooking and holding are called whenever somebody gives you a dirty look, yet guys are getting railed from behind every night without consequence. It's not officially a rule yet, but the Board of Governors really needs to make this official, and fast.  There's no need to be putting player's careers in danger over this stuff. 

Poll
Are you in favor of the new head hit penalty?
Yes
137 votes
No
4 votes
Not sure, need more information
13 votes

154 votes | Poll has closed

Comment 7 comments  |  0 recs  | 

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About time

The fact that it took this long is emblematic of how dysfunctional the NHL league office is.

by Seth9 on Jun 19, 2010 9:17 PM CDT reply actions  

the length of time it took is kind of shocking.They implemented a rule the next day after Sean Avery did his little screen act on Brodeur yet head shots took months, years to do.

by Casey Richey on Jun 21, 2010 7:17 AM CDT up reply actions  

HAHA I just realized that… it’s just sad

by mikerlz on Jun 21, 2010 8:52 AM CDT up reply actions  

I'm just glad . . .

that they didn’t wait until someone ended up in a coma to do something about it.

by zfan16 on Jun 19, 2010 10:41 PM CDT reply actions  

I'm not sure it's dysfunction exactly

Just a combination of inertia and complete disregard for the health of their employees. Typical corporate thinking, unfortunately. :(

"While there's life, there's hope." --Cicero
Science nerd and proud of it!

by Baroque on Jun 20, 2010 11:00 AM CDT reply actions  

I am in favor of it

if only because it means that they actually theoretically have to punish it. I’m of the opinion that the rule is not really necessary though, as the existing rules do a pretty good job of preventing the hits that are not wanted, but are not consistently enforced.

Of course, this will just be another rule ignored 99% of the time.

by bleep bloop on Jun 20, 2010 11:29 PM CDT reply actions  

I miss the old days

when the players would police themselves. If someone took headshot liberties, they got the shit kicked out of them. There were ALOT less injuries back then from cheapshots because the offending player would have to step up. If a player couldn’t hold his own, he didn’t give cheapshots.
Not to bring up something from last century, but a perfect example was Claude Lemeuix. How many cheapshots did he dish out after McCarty kicked his ass?
I absolutely hate goon hockey, but fighting has it’s place.

In life, a man is either the hammer or the anvil. Ndamukong Suh is both

by JazzyBBP on Jun 21, 2010 11:19 AM CDT reply actions  

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