Quote:
Originally Posted by SeeBass
So you think a hit shoulder to chest N/S is safer than a shoulder to shoulder going E/W?
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That's a massive oversimplification of the situation. I do think a shoulder to chest is safer than a clip of the shoulder, bulk of impact ot head, which is what happened in these two situaitons.
Here are my thoughts on it as a whole. North / South plays are the main plays in hockey. When you have the puck, you are tought to keep your head up so you can see who's coming towards you as you skate down the ice. If you have the puck (or about to pick it up), it is your responsibility to be aware of who'd coming towards you head on. This is what happened on the Spezza play. A player skating up the ice with his head down, could actually make it impossible to hit him North / South if he keeps his head down, because it's almost impossible to not make the head the point of contact. This isn't what the NHL is looking to remove from the game, players still need to be responsible and do the right thing, and stopping North / South plays would be silly. On a North / South play, there really should only be 3 things a hitter could do for it to be deemed a head shot IMO and have the book thrown at him: 1. Jump, leave feet (charging), 2. Get the elbow up (elbowing), 3. this one is tougher to judge, but getting down low, then propelling up to catch the player under the chin. Do any of those 3 on a North / South and you have my support that the head was targeted. None of these things happened on the Spezza hit.
East / West is different. Harder for the player being hit to be prepared, so if you are going to blind side someone, more of the ownis of responsibility of the hit falls to the hitter. Luckily, it's also easier to pick your contact point going east / west even if the player does have his head down. You can target the: Head, body (shoulder to waist) or legs (waist to skates). Obviously the league wants folks to target the body in these situations, and especially not the head. On an east / west hit, if you contact the head, regardless of how, it's a head shot. This is what Torres did.
I'll admit, my thoughts on the Torres play evolved twice since it happened. At first I thought, well he did catch some shoulder, glanced off of it and then hit the head. He was probably trying to hit shoulder and just missed, so I was ok with it. Then, I thought more and went, yah, but it's Torres. He's a reckless player and has been warned many times. Torres has to be sure he's not going to hit the head when he hits, even if it's not his intent because a guy like that needs to be taught that he has to be sure before he hits or he'll keep on hurting people. So I became fine with the suspension.
However, finally I thought, regardless of who it is, I'm 100% ok with the NHL saying, if you are going to blindside someone East / West, that's ok, but the hitter is 100% responsible to make sure the hit gets executed properly and the head isn't hit at all, I'm good with that. East / West hits don't have to happen, and if players want to throw them, it should be on them to be completely sure they catch it correctly.