The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

There is no time to wait. The time to act is now.

I am referring to the proposal brought forward by the NHL to make blindside head shots illegal and allow a referee to impose a penalty for an infraction, and the NHL to also consider supplemental discipline if warranted.

The NHLPA seems to agree that a rule about these hits should be implemented, but they want to wait until next season before the change is made. The main reason behind it is that they want the players a chance to "adjust" to the new rule first, as it may affect their game too much and take away from their ability to play the game properly. The NHL is considering bypassing union approval and implement the new rule now.

I wonder if Marc Savard, David Booth or Brent Seabrook agree with the NHLPA on this point.

The funny thing is, as pointed out by Don Cherry, there is already a rule in place called "intent to injure" that has been pretty much ignored by both the referees and the head NHL disciplinarian, Colin Campbell, that makes these blind head shots illegal already. The players know EXACTLY what they're doing when they're head hunting, and when they claim they didn't mean to "hurt anybody" when they connect with these hits, either they're stupid or lying, or maybe a combination of the two.

In any case, if such a new rule needs to be imposed to finally address the problem, so be it. Why the NHLPA would choose to protect the interests of meatheads like Matt Cooke by delaying implementing the rule over the stars of the game like Marc Savard is beyond me and I will never, ever understand it. The union needs to stop thinking every proposal by the league means a new conflict and instead work together to protect its members from being taken out on another stretcher.

And if in the end it results in players like Cooke being out of a job, so be it.