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So I thought I would open up discussion on illegal hits during hockey games.

Last night, with the hit on Sean Monahan, I recoiled in disgust. My gut reaction was "****, that was an assault!" I wanted retribution. Badly.

My instinct was to look to see if an "enforcer" was coming in to demonstrate that these acts would not be tolerated. Then I was anticipating a five minute penalty for the hit, and a game misconduct. Nothing came from it, aside from a meagre two minute penalty. I was furious. I don't think I would have cared any less had this been a hit on a Stars player, coming from the Flames.

Some proponents of this type of hockey might argue that it is integral to the sport. That the players these days aren't tough enough and that they should stand up for themselves when something like this occurs. I simply disagree.

An arrest warrant was issued recently for a player who had deliberately attacked another on the ice in some European league. Although these situations are differently, I remember asking last night if the hit on Monahan should be criminally reprehensible? All the traditional methods of enforcement, in my opinion are pretty weak, and allow players to be vulnerable to deplorable violence. Cooke on Crosby could be another example. When the penalty for delivering an illegal hit is usually nothing greater then a few-game suspension, why not deliver that potentially disastrous hit on the star player of another team to help your own out?

Now don't get me wrong; I have no concern with players being physical. What concerns me is deliberate violence. A butt of a stick to the head at the speed and force it was delivered last night can change anyone, for life. It is lucky that Sean got up from that with little to no injury.

Furthermore, had there been blood, it would have qualified for a double-length penalty. The officiating seems more concerned with consequence than intent. The concern here is that officiating, if given authority to penalize for intent, could become manipulable and questionable (more so than it currently is).

One last idea I want to introduce is the concept of voluntary assumption of risk. As a legal principle, it states that players who engage in sport are assumed to be aware that they are liable to injuries that exceed what would normally occur in one's life. Any injuries that arise from regular conduct during the game are a consequence of an inherently risky engagement and therefore occur without punishment. This does not, however, cover malicious and deliberate attempts to injure.

Wrapping this up, what do you guys think? Should these acts be condemnable through criminal courts? Should the player who delivered the hit to Sean Monahan be issued an arrest warrant?

Edit:

And to refocus the conversation, the message in my OP is not necessarily that criminality be the ideal avenue to enforce rules on the ice, but that current enforcement methods fall short of preventing some over-the-top, egregious acts that are both malicious and deliberate.

Applying this to the incident last night, we need not pursue criminal charges against Ritchie, but what other enforcement methods can be invoked to prevent such dirty plays?