Quote:
Originally Posted by undercoverbrother
If memory serves there was hitting in Women's hockey at one time, but it was taking out in the late 80's early 90's because of the discrepancy between teams, in short Canada and the US were too good.
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Oddly enough, it was the Europeans who wanted to play full-contact.
Prior to the first Women's World Championships in 1990 (where Canada wore the glorious hot pink uniforms), it was typical for the game to be played with full-contact in Europe but no-contact in North America.
The European countries thought that playing full-contact would help even the playing field for them against the more-talented Canada and USA teams.
What they didn't count on was the fact that the Canadian and American women had generally grown up playing on and against boys teams, so they weren't shrinking violets by any means. The Canadian women just physically dominated the rest of the field (outscoring their opponents 50-1 in 3 games in group play).
After that, the rules were changed to disallow body checking:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_I...p#Bodychecking