Eat Sleep Leafs

TORONTO – Will the NHL please stand up?

 

Finally.

How many headshots will it take? How many lowlights running endlessly through the television loops will it take before they get serious?

 

Matt Cooke’s vicious hit on Marc Savard this past Sunday is just the latest hit to trigger reaction to headshots and from the sounds of it, players are ready for something to change.

 

Finally. 

 

“When a guy’s carried off on a stretcher that’s not very nice to see,” Dion Phaneuf said of Cooke’s blindside shot. “When a guy’s vulnerable like that and he clips his head, it’s no different than the [Chris] Neil's hit on Mitchie. There’s no room for that in the game but with saying that also the league does a good job of patrolling that stuff. It’s not our job to discipline that, the league will take care of it and I’m sure they will.”

 

Unfortunately they haven’t.

Colin Campbell and the NHL board of governors have inexplicably sat on their hands with this issue for far too long.

 

“The hits are great until someone gets hurt," Campbell says.

 

Uh, no Mr. Campbell. Maxim Lapierre shoving Scott Nichol head-first into the boards is not great. Mike Richards clipping David Booth is not great and Colby Armstrong targeting Trevor Letowski's head is not great. Those are not great hits Mr. Campbell and that is not physical hockey as you like to say.

 

It’s stupid hockey.

 

“Obviously with Cooke’s hit on Savard [Sunday], that’s a tough one,” John Mitchell said. “He’s in a very vulnerable position. You want to be physical but you don’t want to go out there and hurt guys, so maybe at that instant you can let up and say you know maybe next time or yell at him like ‘Hey I could’ve really put you out for a while’ or what not.”

 

“You don’t want to see those things happen so certain things obviously need to be addressed.”
 

Mitchell was a victim himself of an unnecessary headshot from Sens forward Chris Neil on Saturday and while he admits that he put himself into a position to get hit, there’s no reason for Neil to set his sights on the head.

 

“Even though those are essentially clean hits maybe a penalty has to be called there for just a headshot I guess it would be called.”

 

Maybe that’s a start, albeit a drastically late one. A clearly drawn out rule banning headshots. Hit the head and it’s a five minute major, game misconduct and automatic suspension. No questions asked. 
 

“I’m not going to say it’ll resolve the problem, but guys might think twice,” Mitchell agreed. “I got this guy lined up and I can hit him but if I do hit him I’m going to hit him right in the head. And guys might let up a little bit and not try and blast somebody in the head because that’s the only part of the body they can hit so hopefully they can figure something out, whether it’s a penalty or what not but something needs to be addressed obviously. “

 

Only something should’ve been addressed already.

 

The traditionally inclined or stunted innovators as I'll call them say it wouldn’t be right to take hitting out of the game and on that matter I’ve got no argument. It’s a physical game and it needs to stay that way. Nothing gets a crowd or a bench going quite like a lively hit.

 

But there’s a difference between physical hockey and stupid hockey. Cooke’s hit on Savard isn’t about a guy being physical, it’s about a guy being stupid. Clipping a guy when he's vulnerable isn’t tough hockey, it’s reckless hockey. There's a reason it's the same group of violators every time. Hits like that have nothing to do with the gritty, grinding part of the game that we love.

 

“Where do you draw the line on that?” asked Phaneuf.
 

“If a guy’s coming through the middle of the ice and he’s got his head down and you hit with your shoulder that’s a clean hit. You can’t take hitting out of the game of hockey. Contact is still a big part of this game and I think every guy in the league would say that.”

 

No doubt.

 

And players need to be responsible for their well-being on the ice, I get that. But that responsibility is two-sided and players should expect and demand a level of respect from their peers.

Do we hit jaywalkers because they’re crossing the street illegally?

I didn't think so.

 

It’s time to do something NHL. Actually it was time a while ago.

 

-J.Siegel
Follow me on Twitter: jonas640