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| NHL Moving on Head Shots http://www.sabresjunkie.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2696 |
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| Author: | fly as hale [ Wed Mar 24, 2010 12:05 pm ] |
| Post subject: | NHL Moving on Head Shots |
Here's another article (from Sabres Edge) discussing the new rule regarding hits to the head...just wanted to post it because there are some intelligent comments from Ryan Miller. The Sabres had a brief morning skate today in HSBC Arena and after the media left the dressing room, Lindy Ruff gathered his players for a quick video. It wasn't a study of tonight's opponent, the Montreal Canadiens. It was an NHL-issued DVD on a new rule that prohibiting hits on an unsuspecting player where the head is targeted and/or the principal point of contact. That rule is likely to go on the books any day now. Unlike Pittsburgh's Matt Cooke and Philadelphia's Mike Richards, two players who should have suspended but weren't for vicious hits this year because the rule had no teeth, it appears imminent that this rule will get immediate passage and players can be sat down. "I really feel it only probably involves a couple players with every team," Ruff said. "We've got a couple players involved in the video [Patrick Kaleta is certainly one) and those are players I'm going to have to make sure I address those stiuations with. You don't want to lose good players. "The Drury hit [by Ottawa's Chris Neil in 2007] was part of that video and we lost a good player for a good period of time. Other teams have lost good players. I think it's the right thing to do. There are still good hits that are hard hits but I think they've done a good job describing the hit they want out of the game." Ryan Miller is one of five players on the NHL's competition committee but the NHLPA has not yet approved the band-aid fix of allowing supplemental discipline even if no on-ice penalty is called (the lack of a penalty was a major reason NHL domo Colin Campbell did not suspend Cooke and Richards). Miller told me today he's OK with a temporary fix as the players work this summer to draft real language and a rule with stronger teeth. He said he expects the rule in place before the end of the regular season and certainly for the playoffs. "Now we can be a little more strict and say there's a specific situation we don't want to see in hockey," Miller said. "We have the NHL behind it, we've had the players behind it for a long time. Sometimes it takes a little while to get things moving. There's obviously politics involved. You have to get people to see how important it can be. "Anybody following the health care situation would say it sounds like the right thing but a lot of people disagree with it. This sounds like the right thing too but we can't get any language in place to finish the season so we have to do something temporary. This is the best thing we can come up with right now and we just have to make sure our membership is aware of what's going on and can have an opinion on the matter." Miller said he's been disturbed by the trend toward predatory play this season. "I thought [the Cooke hit] was a dangerous play and there's no room for that in our game," he said. "I thought there have been a lot of hits this year that people have said were borderline. But in my opinion of hockey, they're not borderline. They're just bad hits. You can say what you will about the culture of hockey and I've taken some heat because people tend to think I'm going against the tradition of' 'hit-em-hard hockey.' That's just a culture we created. "Hockey has always been about playing hard and I get that. I love the way guys play hard and go for the puck. Hitting has always been about separating the man from the puck and doing it so you don't hit the guy in the head or from behind or in a vulnerable situation. Somehow, it became OK to do all this and it's not." http://blogs.buffalonews.com/sabres/201 ... oving.html |
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| Author: | Los9090 [ Wed Mar 24, 2010 12:55 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: NHL Moving on Head Shots |
I'm glad they included Niel's hit on Drury in that video. So annoying that didn't even warrant a minor |
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