Quote:
Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan
How often does that happen? If a player is seriously injured as the result of a predatory and dangerous hit, does the offending player not often get a major and possibly a game misconduct?
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I've often seen players sustain ‘upper body injuries’ from incidents that were penalized with nothing more than two minutes for roughing, charging, high-sticking, or what have you. The fact that the injuries were not premeditated doesn't take away from the fact that those plays are illegal precisely because of the risk of injury. The injury does not often happen – but it does happen.
I don't see any equation in potential harm, or in effect on play, of a physical foul and a puck shot out of bounds.
Here's a wild suggestion: Perhaps the game needs some form of punishment intermediate between a minor penalty and the faceoff after icing. When a player shoots the puck out of play in the defending zone, his team gets the unfair advantage of a faceoff – that is, a 50-50 chance of getting out of trouble by taking possession away from the opposing team. Suppose we take away the faceoff in such circumstances. The referees could simply award possession to the non-infringing team, and they could skate the puck in from centre ice while the infringing team have to line up behind their own blue line. It would as nearly as possible restore the game to the situation as it was before the infraction occurred.
It would be a fairly large innovation, but no more so than the introduction of the shootout or 3-on-3 overtime. Anyway, just spitballing here. Many other solutions could doubtless be devised.