Quote:
Originally Posted by Fighting Banana Slug
It's an automatic penalty for high sticking, whenever a guy makes contact. The onus is on the player with the stick not to make contact whether there is intent or not. This isn't much different.
|
Yes, it is very different, because there is absolutely nothing you can do to avoid getting a stick in the face. It's entirely on the other player to control where their stick is. It's also not an automatic penalty - it's only a penalty when the stick makes contact above shoulder-height. If, for example, you lean over to swat at a puck and your face is at waist-level, and someone accidentally hits you with their stick, they will not get a penalty for that.
Of course, it almost never happens, because it's not that often that a guy has his face at waist level, while players often put themselves into vulnerable positions where they might get rocked.
It's really hard to hit guys as it is. If you make it so that any head contact is illegal, you are definitely legislating open ice hits out of the game, because there's just no way to know for sure that there won't be head contact when you commit to a hit.
I don't
want Dal Colle to be immune to being hit in that situation. I don't
want him to get a free pass to carry the puck out of the zone, unless someone can poke the puck off his stick, just because he's got his head down. That feels like the wrong outcome.