The Mike Richards Hit

[duang]

nhl really needs to enforce the rule that, at a minimum, the player who injures another player from even a questionable hit is out for at least as long as the injured player, with no pay but the salary does not come off the team's cap space.

I've always thought that this needs to be accounted for in some way. It's not fair that a player serves a short suspension and returns to competition quickly while the injured player and his team continue to suffer much longer in some cases.

D.

 

[maurice93]

Players are to big and to strong in todays NHL. They generate to much force and can cause immence damage. The head shots have to iliminated. Trust me somebody is going to end up in a coma.

Or dead.

I agree.

Could Richards have not hit him in the head. Absolutely. Penalties need to be harsh to change once acceptable habits.

 

[21pro]

In my opinion the hit is within the rules but dirty.
Allow me to explain.

To me a dirty hit is where a player takes advantage of the vulnerability of another, but manages to keep the contact within the rules as they are written. Penalty calls on contact of this nature could go either way from one referee to another.

An illegal hit is where a player leaves the ice and/or brings up his(the hitter) elbow and is intent on injuring the vulnerable player.

no one is propositioning any laws are being broken here... illegal? c'mon...

for the sake of avoiding confusing terms, clean is within rules, dirty is punishable by nhl rules based on your opinion- because the grey area lies in the discrepency with the 'intent to injure' and 'targeting the head'. both i2i and tth were present as far as anyone can tell, but the 'official' rules permits this behavior... which means, either equipment needs to be looked at or rules need to be changed.

personally, when I played I loved 'popping' a guy that was caught admiring his pass or stickhandling... I think Wendel Clark once agreed with me during his career. I didn't injure many players from those hits, though I did attempt to smash him into mush... my shoulder pads back then were very soft... it was in the late 80's-early 90's when I played... jr's and pro in the 90's... my shoulder pads were actually quite soft foam nylon after getting rid of the old leather shoulder cups of the 70s and 80s... now when I look at the shoulder pads of my present jr A team that I coach, they are harder than ever, made out of kevlar and other rigid plastics.