Quote:
Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger
I don't understand why people keep saying this as if it is reasoning and justification for the hit.
Part of the move away from hits to the head, as initiated by the league, is to train players to better position themselves to avoid these types of hits. While the hit wasn't dirty or malicious, it is entirely reasonable to suggest that it wasn't the best course of action given the attention and concern that is being paid to concussions and head hits.
It is flat out wrong to suggest that it was, with 100% certainty, the best defensive move by Gio and that no other options were available. Some of the games best dmen over the years have not relied on this type of hit. Nik Lidstrom, Erik Karlsson, Dougie Hamilton, Scott Neidermeyer would have all handled the situation differently and I'd be willing to bet they wouldn't have been undressed and scored upon.
Nor do I think that the elimination of this type of hit means that hockey is forever ruined. It just means that to protect players' long term safety, some things that were previously deemed acceptable will need to be phased out of the game. It isn't even a matter of dirty or intentional, it is just a matter of safety.
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A few seconds before the Gio hit, we saw what happened to Hamilton when he tried to separate Aho from the puck without any physical contact. Hamilton may not have been fully undressed on the play but there was a lot of equipment on the ice after that play.