NHL head shot policy not working

Damien Cox

thestar.com


You can deplore the hit Tom Kostopoulos laid on Brad Stuart, breaking the veteran Detroit defenceman’s jaw, as a totally unnecessary bit of hockey violence.

At the same time, however, you can also understand the stance taken by the Calgary Flames, Kostopoulos’s employers, who have vehemently argued that the veteran winger did nothing wrong under the rules of the NHL to deserve a penalty, let alone a six-game suspension.

The fact that you can agree with both of these stances on this incident tells you all you need to know about the NHL’s current policy on head shots.

It’s not working. Nobody really understands it. The officials don’t know how to enforce it — Kostopoulos received a two-minute roughing minor in the game itself — and the players are uncertain as to what is and is not a legal hit.

In other words, after initially rushing through a rule during the season to deal with what was perceived to be an urgent problem, and then following up in the off-season with more detailed and binding legislation, the NHL has solved nothing.

Why? Well, primarily because it is still trying to be half-pregnant, or have its cake and eat it too, or whatever well-worn cliché you feel fits best.

It wants to penalize head shots, but not all head shots (this starts to get a little Orwellian after a while — you know, all head shots are equal, but some are more equal than others).

Instead of moving to a zero-tolerance rule on hits to the head that would certainly have made a lot of sense given the league’s ongoing issues with brain injuries, the NHL tried to appease the dinosaur element by leaving certain types of head shots legal.

You remember all the chatter, right? We’re going to take all of the hitting out of the game, turn it into ballet, etc., etc. — the same old nonsense. This is the element of the hockey populace that embraces as an article of faith the notion that if you make the mistake of skating with the puck with your head down, you essentially deserve whatever terrible thing happens to you.

Gotta keep your head up, right?

So, in their wisdom, the GMs concocted, and the governors approved, a scheme under which blindside and lateral head shots would be illegal, but “north-south” head hits would be ruled legal. So a puck-carrier with his head down could be concussed into tomorrow by a heavy shoulder check and everybody would say that was okay.

Except that’s what Kostopoulos did. And everyone isn’t okay with it, specifically the NHL and chief hangman Colin Campbell.

Stuart was swatting at a puck in his feet and Kostopoulos came roaring into the scene. Stuart’s head was either down or not focused on the incoming danger, and Kostopoulos, without jumping or raising his elbow, caught Stuart on the jaw.

No blindside. No lateral blow. North-south. No elbow. No jump.

And a six-game suspension resulted. No wonder the Flames and Kostopoulos are ticked. They presumably thought they understood the league’s ridiculous head shot policy and were simply skating right through the loophole provided.

Now to any reasonable person that kind of hit shouldn’t be part of the game. But the NHL managers and governors specifically decided they wanted it to be, at least until someone was seriously injured.

Which brings us to the Sidney Crosby concussion, the one that was inflicted by either David Steckel or Victor Hedman. There are some who actually believe Steckel tried to deliver a head blow to the Pittsburgh star in the Winter Classic, although it sure looked like the Washington forward was trying a lot harder to get out of the way as Crosby curled right into him.

But really, it’s just another head shot and another intense debate over who’s at fault, another instance of how the absence of a zero-tolerance policy on head shots is at the root of this entire problem.

If any hit to the head resulted in a major, a game misconduct and a suspension, there wouldn’t be any debate, would there? You get caught knocking an opponent in the melon, it’s your fault. Sort of the antithesis of the “keep your head up” mentality.

But the only one that will truly work.

Go back to Joe Thornton’s two-game suspension for nailing David Perron of the Blues back on Nov. 4. The Sharks screamed bloody murder over losing Thornton for two games. Perron, however, still isn’t back, the brain trauma he suffered in the hit was so severe.

So where’s the justice? And was anyone satisified by the application of the new rule?

Drew Doughty was concussed by a head shot delivered by Erik Cole in October and missed six games. Cole wasn’t suspended, and while Doughty has returned he hasn’t been the same player he was last year.

The rule isn’t working. The NHL just doesn’t want to admit it. Yet.

So expect the concussions to keep on coming.