alt="LA Kings Insider with Rich Hammond" />The NHL’s general managers are having one of their regular meetings this week in Boca Raton, Fla. — tough week, huh? — and the major topic on the table will be hits to the head. After the last meetings, a group of GMs was selected to discuss possible rule changes in terms of eliminating or regulating hits to the head. The New York Times also reported today that an independent group of specialists has been studying the types of hits that cause the most damage to players and will present its findings to the GMs this week.
If the GMs reach a consensus this week, in terms of what (if anything) they feel needs to be done, the next step would be to present their recommendations to the league’s competition committee, which convenes in June. The committee, if it sees fit, would then put changes in place for the 2010-11 season.
Why hasn’t a suspension for Cook been announced yet? I know the league has a hard on for the Penguins, but the hit to Savard’s head was disgusting.
I would think that would happen at some point today. And didn’t he just get suspended for 2 games in January? Or was it February? It’s a bummer those kinds of hits are not explicitly banned. There’s no place in this game for that crap.
just follow in the footsteps of the IIHF. also get rid of the trapezoid and bring in no touch icing :)
I really liked the Olympics no touch Icing rule. That’ll spare some injuries for sure.
Aside from hits to the head, the most interesting topic for me is the GM’s inability to retain salary in trades. I think this is a bad idea and only allows ridiculously expensive contracts to continue to be signed (Campbell, Huet, I’m looking at you). Instead of talking about trading salary, how about the GM’s not guarantee the players that salary in the first place ?
@20lucfan, agreed. I wonder if there has ever been an attempt at getting rid of icing all together. I have no idea if it’s feasible, but it would be pretty cool if they could do it. Perhaps a no-touch icing rule where the offending team can’t touch the puck until it is brought back into their zone. If they do, it’s a penalty. Crazy, huh? Kind of fun though.
@James R, Agreed, the “race for the puck” isn’t so exciting that it’s worth a season-ending injury.
@James R,
Slowed down the game too much for me. It will spare some injuries, but so will a lot of things. Get rid of hitting, fighting, slap shots, dull the blades of the skates, etc etc.
I know some of those examples are ridiculous, but how far do we want to go safety wise before we can just concede, “It is a dangerous sport, injuries will happen and you need to know the risk before you decide to play at a high level.
The problem with the NHL’s discipline department is that players don’t know what the standard is. One guy gets four games, another gets two. They need to take the equivocation out of it and make it a simple black-and-white rule: Any hit to the head that results in an injury should be at punished with a 10-game suspension at minimum. I think a severe, mandatory punishment would be a deterrent, and would take the guess work out of it.
I also read that they are debating only the top 7 are assured playoff spots.
They want to line up positions 8-15 for a play-in tournament for the 8 seed.
Lame.
@deelo, Would that be similar to the “wildcard” spot in baseball ?
@deelo,
Too much already. Bring back 1 v 16 and so forth.
On topic, no touch icing would help the head banging. An, if they review goals, then review games, to. Refs and Linesmen do not see all.
Hand out a few video suspensions and see what happens.
@VanKingsFan,
I agree about the game being slowed down, but I think that the rule is a good idea because it is an area where injuries can be prevented rather easily. My solution would be to implent the no-touch icing with one very big change. I would allow linesman more latitude in blowing a play dead so that if an icing was a result of a missed pass to a player up ice, play could continue.
I don’t like it being automatic because it takes away from potential breakaways, so let linesman determine whether it was because of clearing the puck to relieve forechecking pressure, or if it were from a pass that was near the player it was intended for and just didn’t connect (say, five feet or less away).
@USHA#17,
That is a long and slippery slope you are climbing…one that is pretty much impossible to reach the top of.
@Bob Bobson,
excellent point…
there will always be gm’s who just can’t control themselves (slats, sutter, etc.) and constantly make poor deals that are somewhat absolved by their respective boss/owner’s personal relationship or subservience towards them…
but i’ve just chosen to learn and except that…and i realize..in itself…this is a part of the spirit of competition – the ability to properly budget/build a competitive AND fiscally responsible team versus the other 29…
historically, every league has gone through these problems throughout the modern/free agency era…
if you go by the current state of baseball, all you have to do is have an owner(ship) that doesn’t mind spending millions of dollars in penalties and taxes for going over a so-called “hard-cap” figure…and then you get the have’s and have-not’s board game a la monopoly scenarios year-after-year…
in basketball, the ability to guarantee money offsets any hard-cap figures, because gm’s can push tons ‘o’ cash up front to lure free agents…
the same can be said in football, but with tighter constraints…
@variable, I hear you. Like DL says, cap space is in and of itself an asset. In a salary cap world, if a GM cannot properly operate under it, they should have to deal with the consequences just the same as if they drafted poorly or made a bad trade. Trading salary is like a mulligan for guys like Sather or Tallon (even though I know he is not the GM anymore).
@wavesinair, i for one HATE icing. i remember coming out of the lock out, they said if a team ices the puck too much, they would get a delay of game penalty. i’ve still never seen it.
@wavesinair, They can’t get rid of it, otherwise, all a team needs to do in order to defend a lead late in a game is just ice the puck, constantly. Right now, they can’t.
I would like to see something like, after 5 icing calls, a bench delay of game penalty given. Something like that…but that’s just my own opinion…nothing more.
@Bob Bobson,
I think its more similar to the play-in game they have for the NCAA men’s college basketball, except all non-playoff teams could make it.
Just devalues the regular season IMO. If you can’t make the top 8 out of 15 teams in a conference…you don’t deserve to be there anyways.
@mrbrett7, But sometimes icing results from a long pass that just doesn’t connect. Teams get called for icing when they’re actually trying to push the action.
@KingMe20, Better yet, I wouldn’t mind seeing no-touch icing, but giving the linesmen the discretion to waive it off it it’s fairly clear that an offensive player is going to reach the puck before a defensive player. If it’s clear a defender will touch it first, or if it’s a real race to the puck, blow it dead. But sometimes it makes strategic sense to fire a puck into the opposing zone from your own blue line if you’re sure a teammate will get there first. Those plays shouldn’t be blown dead.
Rich- In your nonpartisan view what would be the top three rules/changes you would make? Personally, I’m not a fan of the going down and sliding along the ice shot block. I say make players stay on both feet to block a shot.
@KingMe20, I totally agree. All this business of “intent to injure,” did the skaters feet leave the ice, was the elbow up….it doesn’t matter. When you hit someone IN THE HEAD hard enough that they get knocked out and leave on a stretcher, you made a bad decision as a player to execute the way you did, and it should be a mandatory suspension. Until it becomes that clear, players will always tempt fate.
Rich, isn’t it still the case that the competition committee’s recommendations get first sent to the NHLPA reps, and then to the NHL board of governor’s who then approve the changes?
@wavesinair, they are in the CHL based upon the year long suspensions handed down. The CHL is out in front of the NHL on this one.
@VanKingsFan,
Yeah, but I don’t feel the cup round necessarily hosts the best teams.
Is there another way to get back to a league wide playoff system and insure the two best or two hottest teams make it to the cup round?
How’s that for a “Head Hit” discussion tangent? :-)
@Bob Bobson, I respectfully disagree. Our low cap # has been an asset for DL the past 3 years and we have picked up two #2s from Philly to take on salary. This was a win-win as the picks accelerated our rebuild.
Mr. Lombardi, please vote to take out both, the instigator rule and the trapezoid!
Signed,
One of your constituents, a diehard LA KINGS FAN.
@ jet, I think you and I agree on the same thing that cap space is an asset. In your example, Dean was able to use our cap space to get extra picks. As another example, we took Tverdovsky off the Canes’ hands in the JJ trade b/c they wanted to dump salary as part of the deal. Did you think I wrote “cap space ISN’T an asset” ?
Watching the Olympics where hits to the head are not tolerated, (USA had a goal disallowed due to a hit to the head) it seems odd to me that a study or a debate is required. In most cases a player does not have the opportunity to protect himself and therefore is more susceptible to injury. I have yet to hear an argument as to the positive side of head hits. They head are dangerous, we all know it, and should be removed from the game.
@VBunker72, Solution…get rid of the instigator penalty. I guarantee these cheap shots to the head, knee to knee hits, charges, etc will decrease.
I just watched the video of the Cooke hit on Savard. Horrible!!! I’m so sick of seeing the “flying elbow” take out players like that! 20 game suspension. Time to play hardball on this issue. These 2 or 4 game suspensions or “first-time offender” status or whatever goes on in determining discipline in the NHL doesn’t make any sense to me.
We’re talking about people’s lives here. Serious consequences are needed!
What really sucks is that anybody who would have wanted to beat the snot out of Cooke afterwards would have been the one penalized for instigating a fight. Ridiculous!!! That rule needs to go!
Trapazoid too!
***End of rant***
My opinion is.. the player should suspend until the injured player play again if he intends to hurt him.
Any hit to the head that is not the result of the offensive player making an abrubt turn into the check should be a suspension. Blindside checks, elbows, leaving your feet even a reckless shoulder to the head should start at ten.
I don’t want to hear this crap about it would take checking out of the game because it won’t. Nhl players are too big, too fast and strong and the equipment is built to protect to the point that it can hurt others.
It’s a physical sport with players who need to respect that this is a job that could end in aq split second with these hits. It is happening so much now that it is just a matter of time before it affects the Kings. What happens when Anze or Doughty is out for the season?
And to further my rant, Ivanans or Boogaard and all the other thugs are not going to truley have an impact on this type of play. Let’s get real, let’s get modern, let’s move on. The time for goons has past. We have Simmonds or Clune to handle policing the ice.
This has happened to so many teams this year that I think the owners will have to make some kind of decision that bans hits to the head.
Sorry I got long winded.