Eat Sleep Leafs

TORONTO – Ron Wilson got his two cents in Tuesday on the headshot debate raging as general managers meet in Boca Raton, Florida for their annual meetings.

“I’d like to think that we’re smart enough to protect the most skilled people,” Wilson said of potential rule changes. “We just saw in the Olympics, the games can be very violent and physical with the threat of a ten-minute misconduct with any head contact and I didn’t see that slow our team or Canada down in terms of physical contact.”

 

The debate has raged intensely once again following a Matt Cooke cheap shot to the unsuspecting head of Marc Savard. The hit has the old guard up in arms against those rallying for change.

 

“Why couldn’t he hit him in the body as he’s coming across?” Wilson asked. “Why does he hit him in the head? Because I personally think he knew what he was doing and he went to the front part of the guy.”

 

“You can loosely interpret the rulebook already and take those hits out. Charging [is in the rulebook already]. There’s even a checking from behind [rule] which says when the player doesn’t see the player delivering the hit, you can call that checking from behind. Those types of hits I think have to be eliminated.”

 

There are some on the opposite side of the ledger who claim that a responsibility also lies on the player being hit to which Wilson responds, “When I hear ‘Well you have to know who’s on the ice’. There’s a line change and you’re trying to get the puck out and you’re looking back and somebody hits you in the head. I think those plays don’t belong in our game.”

 

-J.Siegel
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