I’ll be honest, I was upset after Chris Neil tried to take Chris Drury’s head off three years ago. I’m obviously biased but it seemed like Neil deliberately targeted Drury and used his elbow as a weapon. Chaos ensued and the league did nothing. I don’t know if it’s coincidental but not even a year after the Neil/Drury hit, Patrick Kaleta joined the team. Maybe Neil wouldn’t have been looking for trouble had Pat Kaleta been on the Sabres at that time. I find myself fascinated with Kaleta. More than anything else, his presence on the team represents a physical threat to break someone’s forehead, legally, at any time. So everyone better behave, or else. What once was a job handled by fighters has been taken over by punishing, and at times dangerous, body checkers. Should that really be necessary?
It doesn’t have to be a player of prominence like Drury, but it could be and that’s all that matters. If it’s clean, if it’s dirty, it doesn’t make a difference because injuries happen on both. Granted, their more likely to happen and are generally more severe on dirty hits. A broken bone is one thing but some hits, especially those to he head, are threatening the life and well-being of the player that is being hit. After it happens, the circumstances are irrelevant; the hit was delivered, and the injury sustained.
The idea is to avoid all that nonsense altogether, right? I mean, Kaleta is a great player, but I’d rather see him lay someone out who has the puck, as a means of separating him from the puck. Instead, because of the way the league is enforced, his role is primarily that of a statement player – a threat that reminds opponents what goes around, comes around. If you hit one of the Sabres best players at any time, for any reason, Kaleta will return the favor.
You know what the Florida Panthers do not have? They don’t have a Pat Kaleta type player. So when Mike Richards was on the ice last Friday, he was willing to take a chance for a big play and lined David Booth up in the middle of the ice for a ferocious hit . Bad things always happen when players skating across the ice make contact with players skating up the ice because the head is always vulnerable in that position.
There are a couple things I want to say about this hit. First of all, the hit itself looks technically fair and legal. Richards made contact with his shoulder, not his elbow. He didn’t jump into Booth. Even though Richards’ feet left the ground after contact, it was clearly the collision that caused his skates to leave the ice. That’s about all I liked about the hit though. The timing was awful. Booth had passed the puck (and was on his linemates stick) long before Richards even initiated contact. Clearly, Richards didn’t anticipate that Booth would slide the puck over to his winger. The game speed is very fast in hockey and it would be impossible to expect Richards to recognize the pass and change his course. Had Booth held onto the puck he probably would have seen Richards approaching. Everything could have been different.
But things didn’t work out the way Richards planned or expected. The hit was late and struck a vulnerable, unsuspecting Booth in the head. I’m not suggesting that contact needs to be down-scaled. There are plenty of opportunities to deliver hard, fair hits in this game. I think we all can agree though that the type of hit that Richards delivered does not belong in the NHL. Hits like that should never happen. The NHL is sending the wrong message to players and fans by continuing to allow it.
Not only are they allowing it, but they’re enabling it. Richards was not suspended for the hit which I find to be ridiculous. The evidence of the hit being late is irrefutable. Whether or not Richards meant for the hit to be late is not important. I haven’t seen anything about his game that suggests he’s a dirty player but again the fact of the matter is the hit was late. What does intent have to do with what happened? He took a chance in hopes of making a big play. Richards made a choice and the league should stand up and say, okay, you took a chance and while your intent was tolerable, the result is not and for that reason you’re suspended.
The league maintains that Richards’ hit did not reflect an intent to injure. If that’s the only standard the league uses when considering suspensions as it appears to be, then I don’t agree with it. If Richards’ hit falls into what is considered acceptable by league standards, then they need to be changed. Two things: (1)The league needs to set higher infractions for hits to the head and for (2) hits to unsuspecting players who don’t have control of the puck. This seems obvious to me but apparently not the NHL. These are just the issues brought about by the Richards hit on Booth.
It sucks that this is such a large enough issue that I felt I had to write about it. These incidents (usually involving the boards) happen every year and the media does a good enough job addressing it. Eventually the sentiment of hockey being a contact sport overrules the plea for head safety. No one wants to see contact leave the sport but where do we draw the line? An unsuspecting hit to the head seems like a good place to me. I’m willing to sacrifice some clean body shots if it meant we wouldn’t see any more of these devastating collisions to the head.
Why wouldn’t the league want to protect their players? I don’t have an answer. The NHL is controlled by too many purists and not enough sensible innovators. Their leadership has held the progress of this league back for years. I find myself feeling frustrated by it. Just as much to blame though is the players union. This is their issue more than the leagues. Too bad they seem completely inept and totally dysfunctional.
What is it going to take? Does someone have to die? It’s not unreasonable to say it could happen. It might happen in fact if these dangerous hits are allowed to continue.