No head hunting with body armor = no head injuries.

Head hunting with small pads = head injuries to an unkown extent, but maybe/probably less than w/ body armor.

Clearly the root cause is head hunting, but it's more fun to be a smart ass than address the issue logically.

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Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can.

Why don't you forward that to Booth and Drury...and I'll just take that response as an acknowledgement that you can't counter my last post with anything worth a damn.

Take it however you want, old chum.

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Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can.

I agree with you. I don't see any way you can justify going after someone's head (intent to injure) regardless of the equipment.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

You can't justify going after someones head, ever. The point that is trying to be made is that when you have softer equipment it hurts your shoulder a lot more than if you have hard plastic protecting them - that prevents a lot of those hits. If you ever had to play a contact sport with cotton pads instead of hard plastic, it would be crystal clear.

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"I don't feel like Satan, but I am to them"
Neil Young

"Shoulder hits to the head have always been legal, yet the problem with concussions has suddenly become a major problem."

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

So you're saying that the players should wear softer pads, thus incurring a large swath of individuals with wrecked shoulders or elbows, instead of addressing the problem that is head-hunting?

(I could swear I just posted in this thread, but my response seems to have gotten eaten)

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mechaphil

Not quite that cut and dried Phil, maybe a happy medium with a little softer pads, harsher crackdowns on headshots, and doing away with the instigator rule for starters.

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"I don't feel like Satan, but I am to them"
Neil Young

Why are head shots such a problem now? The 70's may have been the most blood thirsty era in NHL history but this never was a big deal. Could it be, might it be, it is! It's the pads that turned into weapons of mass destruction!!!

Why not give the players guns and then act shocked when someone gets shot?

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Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can.

Given that you're such an authority on equipment-related hockey psychology, ETC, why don't you provide some concrete studies and statistics?

Seems to me that the vastly-increased size, speed, and skill of the game today, combined with officiating that takes self-policing out of the game and possibly the respect with it, are the causes of all of these shenanigans. Players were comparatively lumbering oafs with big fists (EDIT: the types of players that would today be handing out these murderous hits), from a lot of what I saw in highlights, old video, and classic games shown on NHLN. Now, you've got cruise missiles on ice skates. Regardless of equipment, the KO hit is sought after with reckless abandon. Hard plastic or no hard plastic, a guy is going to get knocked the fuck out when he gets plowed through with a guys shoulder going at 50 mph.

Wyo brings up lacrosse...I'd like to point out that, as an avid fan of lacrosse, the indoor game is just as violent as hockey, and played with a lot of the same equipment (some of it 99% identical), but this just isn't a problem in the indoor game. Huh, imagine that.

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mechaphil

Uh didn't they not wear helmets in the 70s? It's not a pads issue, it's a respect issue. Players don't respect each other, and they don't respect the consequences of headhunting. If you're not going to let the players enforce it (the instigator), then the league has to crack down on headhunting.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

What happened in the 70's were fights. What's happening now has not once had anything to do with a fight. I miss the 70's style of hockey and bench brawls. They were far more entertaining than watching todays player lay unconscious and carted off on a stretcher. I guess they let men be real men back then. Hockey has become sissified.

I think the instigator rule would help cut down on this head hunting crap, but the biggest problem now is the size of pads in general.

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"Call a cop he robbed Delmore blind!!!"
Rick Jeanerette after Marty Biron's diving save back in 2000.

"I'm going to go to the spa and have a hot tub and massage and relax," Miller said. "That's it, and it's back to work tomorrow." Ryan Miller after clinching the North East division.

wow those refs are dumbasses.... I hope Drury will be ok. Screw Glencross... thats pathetic, who does that? Oh thats right scum bags... Glencross got what he deserved, a lot less if you ask me.

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LETS GO BUFFALO!

When I heard Glencross I was mad for two reason, the first reason is why was Glencross suspended and not Chris Neil when Neil who hit Drury 10 times harder in the head two years ago? And the second reason is why was Mike Richards not suspended who was basically trying to knock Booth's head off?

I do not want to see drastic head injuries but come on!! If Glencross get 3 games for basically accidently running in to Drury then Richards should have gotten at least 3 or more for his hit on Booth, Colin Campbell needs to be more consistent with these kinds of hits.

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just call me Brad

Twitter @BUrbanowicz13

This. The NHL's standards are nothing, if not inconsistent.

Very true.

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just call me Brad

Twitter @BUrbanowicz13

Let's take a basketball, an item that is decidedly softer and has more give than hockey shoulder pads.

If someone is hit in the right way in the head with this basketball, they can develop an epidural hematoma and die within a few hours.

Softer shoulder pads are good idea, but making sure that people don't use them as weapons is the more correct choice.

Nah...you're a baby.