[Weitz]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Yeeeeah... it's not really that simple at this level. In this case, Hjalmarsson had him lined up and hit him through the body, solid contact, and because his head was down he got him in the head. Now, that's a penalty, because the rules say it's a penalty. And it's probably a suspension, because the standards applied to date indicate it's a suspension.

But saying "he could have just easily hit him another way" is, to me, a lack of understanding of how fast things are moving at the NHL level. It's basically the hockey equivalent of "why didn't the police officer just shoot him in the leg instead of killing him". If Hjalmarsson tries to change his trajectory and hit him from an angle that misses the head, he could easily hurt himself, or more likely, miss or glance off of Rattie, leading to the Blues getting a chance. Now, a veteran player of Hjalmarsson's caliber not going to end up scratched for making that kind of a screw up in a 3-0 pre-season game, but for other guys, that isn't the case. Moreover, for that reason, every instinct that's been trained into the guy for ~20 years playing contact hockey has to be telling him "this guy isn't staying on his feet".

So yeah, I expect a suspension, but I also think that the current standard is pretty harsh on guys who aren't picking the head and are really trying to make a clean hit. Compare that to the Toffoli one - all he gets is Davidson's head. That's a bad hit.

Guys will learn eventually if the NHL is serious about protecting players.

Same thing is happening in the NFL and guys are coming around slowly.