NHL, NHLPA officially ban blind-side head shots

I am rather curious to see how this all plays out. Obviously this rule will not capture or rather outline every single type of hit, what is legal and what is now deemed illegal. There is still going to be debate on this that much I am sure of. Part of the equation, something that is really almost impossible to know is intent. Does someone intend harm on their victim? While it might be easy to say that guys like Matt Cooke have such an intention every time they throw an elbow that isn’t always the case and blanket statements, no matter how dirty the player may be, should ever be made. That is what I think is most intriguing. This rule while addressing the hit I don’t think addresses the more pressing issue which is the intent.

Doesn’t this rule still leave something open to interpretation, though? That’s the part that worries me. I want something really clear cut, and I don’t think this is.

I like the attempt to control the head hits and the video is pretty good but I am still confused about how a hit to the head from a straight ahead approach is still legal? Stevens’ approach was from the front, face to face, and Lindros was looking down, which is not good, but the fact remains Stevens’ initial contact was to Lindros’ head not his body. I understand the basic premise of trying to eliminate blindside hits but if you make contact with the head before the body it should be a penalty. And he opens the video stating exactly that point then says the Stevens’ hit was legal? This is going to turn into more arbitrary judgements in which punishment will still be levied depending on what color jersey you are wearing. In other words if Cooke does it again they will qualify the hit by the new ruling in some way and if anyone wearing orange and black commit a borderline hit a new precedence in suspension will be recognized. No surprise!

Somehow, hitting a player in the head is still legal? WTF?

One common thing to all these blindside hits was the checker had one hand off the stick, elbow bent and arm tucked tight against his mid-section to lead with the shoulder….I guess this is standard checking technique. If the checker is required to keep both hands on the stick he will hit the opponent in a more crouched position (thus not aligned the opponets head in most cases) with more of hit done by his upper back or side of the the arm. This will increase the time of contact and thus generate less force by the eq. F= momentum / time. It also means that the checker cannot apply a glancing blow so easily and therefore cannot impart all that momentum [mass times velocity] without absorbing more of the impact. A good example of this was when Gagne in the last Bruins game was skating thru the middle and the Bruins defender made the check with both hands on the stick, hitting with his body and was still effective from keeping Gagne off the puck without concussing him. At least if not with both hands on the stick then the hit must be made crouched and with the body. The both hands on stick thing would just ensure the proper body positioning.