It seems like people want to find something wrong with the NHL these days. It's almost like hockey became too popular during the Olympic Games to be healthy. Now all anyone can talk about is dirty hits.
Here's a news flash people, the Alexandre Ovechkin hit on Brian Campbell was clean. At worst, it was wreckless, not malicious. Just as his hit in the Olympic Games that concussed Jaromir Jagr was clean. That hit was highlighted across the world as a positive.
The difference between what Ovechkin did and the hit by Matt Cooke on Boston Bruins Marc Savard is huge. Ovechkin throws hits to the body. Yes, they might injure the opposing player's head, as was the case with Jagr, but the hit is to the body.
Watching Matt Cooke's brutal hit over and over this week, he hit only Savard's head. Not only that, but he extended his arm to assure he made contact with Savard.
The NHL GMs have been doggedly working on a new rule to curb hits to the head over the last week. I think what needs to be done is obvious. If a player is injured from a hit that connects to the body AND head, it is clean. If the player mainly makes contact with the head without making significant connection to the body, then it is a suspendable hit.
Think about it, if you make significant contact with your "targets" body, it likely will not be a blindside hit. It is easy however, to reach out, or blindside an opponent and only make contact with the head. Yes, that would put Cooke in this category, along with the Mike Richards hit on David Booth earlier this season, but it would save hard, agressive plays like Alex Ovechkins.
Taking the edge out of hockey would be catastrophic, but allowing blatent hits to the head to continue would also have damaging affects on the game of hockey.
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