The 'nana bunch

Hits are contentious in hockey. Body checking is part of the game. Its there in the rulebook as allowed. But there's reasons why checking isn't allowed at junior levels of the game. It encourages too much aggression, and can lead to injuries. But that's OK for the seniors, right? The top of the game can't be all that bad?

Some people argue that the game requires fighting, some say not, but how teams get to the point of fights is often left out of the equation.

2 bad hits in three days have set a bad tone, and this ill feeling among some fans and commentators resurfaces throughout the NHL season whenever a player gets decked by an over-enthusiastic hit. It's all part of the game. Sure, it makes it more watchable, and players are paid fairly handsomely when they get right to the top of their game, just as they are in many televised sports nowadays. But do they deserve concussions?

Marc Savard and Scotty Nichol wouldn't think so. Montreal's Maxim Lapierre knocked Nichol into the end boards at the start of the third period of the Sharks' 3-2 win last Thursday night in San Jose. On reviewing video evidence, Lapierre was banned for 4 games. Nichol was injured on the play and did not return to the game. No penalty was assessed on the play.

Boston's Marc Savard, who's been on the IL already this season, was taken out of the game on a stretcher when the Bruins played the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday night. An elbow to the head by Pittsburgh's Matt Cooke (not know as a dirty player by any means, but an irritating player) blindsided Savard with the Bruins losing and much of the third period still left to play. He could have been crucial to a potential game-tying or game-winning push, but no-one will now know. No penalty was called on the play against one of Boston's most influential players.

Headshots are one of the themes of the NHL general managers' meetings going on now in Florida.

A discussion of a two-year independent medical study undertaken by the league included a video presentation showing footage of a number of well-known hits to the head during games. The league estimates there are 60,000 to 70,000 body hits during a season, and during the past 2½ years there have been 200 concussions reported among players. Small odds, maybe, but not small numbers. Players' livelihoods deserve better protection that they're getting, and presently shoulder checks to the head are considered legal hits.

The NHL is struggling to minimize concussions without damaging a sport that clearly relies on its physicality to enhance spectator entertainment. On any given Saturday, around 3 million people watch NHL games.

We've (well, 25 million of us) have just watched a tournament where this sort of hockey was outlawed. In the Olympics, there's much more scope for technical hockey, because although there are hits thrown at international level, the majority of the action I watched, even in the Canada/United States final (where you'd think things were important enough to go all out), none of the checks were anything on a par with what we see day in, day out in the NHL regular season. And don't get me started on the playoffs... ouch ><

There's circumstances surrounding these figures that some might consider mitigating, to an extent, so those numbers can't be taken in proper context (you won't have 25 million people watching every week), but the question is worth asking.

The GMs are looking with the league at ways they can reduce the amount of concussions that come from legal hits. Whether that means banning headshots or improving kit even further remains to be seen. After all, as the director of hockey operations, Colin Campbell, said: "What we don't want to do is damage one of the basic fibers of the game."

"The hits are great until someone gets hurt," Campbell said. "The question is, do we want to take shoulders to the head out of the game of hockey?"

I'd say yes. I don't think you can necessarily ban them, because people will get caught during the course of a season, accidents happen, and with the speed that game goes, well, you can't prevent them from happening. The best course of action I can is that if players do hit to the head they are ejected from the game afterwards. Shoving your stick into an opponent's gut could be seen as premeditated, and as such the spearing major penalty is in place. Headshots are accidental, much of the time.

In my view, the league will have to be careful about sanitizing the game too much. Weeding out bad hits is one thing but to ban checking altogether (which some in the game are pushing for) would be a bad idea. Then it'd no longer be the game I've enjoyed watching. When rule changes affect how the game is played it's always worth watching for the fall out.