Yes, I’m upset that Ruutu wasn’t suspended for this abomination . He’s a dirty player and I hate him with the fury of a thousand suns. The thing is, the league has historically done such a poor job at policing these situations that my reaction to them has become a little desensitized. My opinion regarding hits to the head of defenseless players is well documented .
The good news is that the NHL has noticed and recently began serious talks of change. It’s encouraging to read a report like this . Here’s a few things I’d like to see happen:
- Colin Campbell must take a lesser role. Currently he’s the Director of Hockey Operations. He’s basically the leagues principal disciplinarian. He really hasn’t done a very good job lately, in my opinion. I understand the punishment that he distributes reflects the current rules but the fact that his office treats star players differently than ordinary role players is unacceptable. Plus, his son is a player in the NHL ! Talk about a conflict of interest. I’m sure he’s professional but how can emotions not get involved some of the time? He’s human. I’m sorry, but someone with such a powerful position who needs to have an unbiased outlook on all players, can’t have an immediate family member within that group. The league needs someone new making these decisions.
- Publicize the rule changes to players, coaches, managers, owners, media, and fans. There can’t be any more media members watch a hit and unanimously say this incident will be a suspension of five games then tomorrow we find out there’s no suspension at all. Everyone has a different interpretation of the rules. It’s chaos. Unbiased observers can’t decide whether the hit is fair or not and they certainly can’t predict what the league is going to do about it. There’s no standard.
- Make the following illegal. Any hit delivered to a player from behind in which the player receiving the check is unable to realistically protect himself. That’s different from a player that has his head down. Hits made from behind are totally unexpected. Hits should only be made on players that have the puck or had the puck just moments before. Players that do not have the puck are not expecting to be in a situation where they must protect themselves. Also, any hit where the head absorbs the majority of the contact. This is obvious. Body checks have to be done safely. It’s like blocking someone in football by taking out there knees. It’s just cheap and unsafe.
- Increase and standardize the punishment. I realize that hits from behind are already illegal and are already considered a penalty but these situations need to be handled differently than a tripping infraction. I suggest that the first time something like this happens, the league office issues an official warning. After that, the next incident is a ten game suspension and every incident after that is twenty games. In the playoffs, a player who has been warned should be suspended for the rest of the playoff series. No more of this discussion of whether the player should get three games or two games or five games. Just make it the same across the board and make it severe. Mistakes happen on the ice, but some players are habitual offenders. Those are the players that need to be reprimanded. As far as knee on knee hits and other obscure dirty plays like a deliberate elbow or something of that matter, the current disciplinary policy seems to address those incidents well.
All these changes are done for two reasons. (1) Players need to be given a fair opportunity to protect themselves and (2) they need to be checked in a way that is safe. I think we can all agree that protecting players is in everyone’s best interest. And to the hockey purists/traditionalists: I refuse to believe that the intensity with which hockey is played will be sacrificed if the league takes a renewed approach to safety.
Update:
I just got an email that raises a good point. There will always be a lot of ambiguity in what qualifies as a suspendible hit and what is considered legal. There will always be players that push the limits. That’s why the punishment should be severe. After the new boundary is established, players will back off. Implementing new rules with stricter punishments restricts the margins. In a few years after the new rules, fans will no doubt be discussing the difference between a hit on a player who has the puck and a hit on a player who passed the puck just a half second before he was hit. Should the latter be legal, they’ll wonder. If that’s the new margin between questionably legal hits and illegal hits, I can live with that. There shouldn’t even be a discussion as to whether or not a defenseless hit to the head is legal or not which at the present is basically what the league disciplinary committee must determine. The stakes are too high, in my opinion. Just accept that ambiguity will always exist in a league that must rely on a subjective opinion to enforce rules. Some actions though shouldn’t be legally ambiguous. They should be declared as totally unacceptable and intolerable.