Part 2 of an excellent article from today's Boston Globe, worthy of a read by all hockey fans:
Hesitant to change rules
Tweaking the rules produces countermeasures as players find ways to adapt to restrictions. When the NHL began enforcing obstruction penalties to cut down on the clutching, grabbing, and hooking that was bogging down the game, defenders put more emphasis on playing the body. Comper?s analysis found that only a quarter of the concussed players had the puck when they were hit and that nearly half of them had just released it.
?When you get the puck and you know you?re going to be targeted, you?re braced because you know the hit is coming,?? says Cantu. ?Once you?ve passed it, your antennae aren?t quite as heightened.??
While banning north-south head shots clearly would reduce the number of concussions, it also would skew the time-tested equilibrium between offense and defense. As long as a player can see who?s coming at him, he?s fair game.
?From the time you?re 8 years old, you?re taught to keep your head up, and that if you get labeled, it?s your fault,?? says Kings general manager Dean Lombardi.
Even after he has released the puck, the offensive player has to expect to be taken out of the equation.
?Ever since I?ve been involved in the sport, you?ve been taught to finish your check,?? says Chiarelli. ?If you don?t, the guy knows you?re not finishing the check, so he has that much more freedom.??
Any change to the rulebook changes the game, which is why both management and players tend to react hesitantly to proposed alterations. While the general managers will deal with the concussion issue at their meeting next month and likely will talk about north-south hits, their sense is that Rule 48 should be given more time to work before more changes are made.
?Whenever you?re going to change a playing rule and people don?t have a degree of confidence in what the result will be, they?re going to be cautious about it,?? says Donald Fehr, executive director of the NHL Players Association. ?The uncertainty is one of the reasons for the caution.??
There is universal agreement that Rule 48 was necessary and that cheap shots to the head clearly diminished this season with only six penalties (four suspensions and two fines) assessed under the rule and players are more mindful about how they play the body.
?Definitely, guys are thinking a bit more,?? says Lucic. ?If you look at tapes of games where those hits could have happened, guys let up this year. So you can see somewhat of an improvement when it comes to that.??
But the NHL has never been an ice ballet, not since the Montreal Wanderers and Toronto Arenas first had at each other in 1917. Hockey is by its nature a concussive game, and the risks are obvious to everyone who pulls on a sweater.
?I say to people, these guys are all volunteers,?? says Burke. ?There?s no one out there who was conscripted. They signed on for a game that?s dangerous at times. We have to make it as safe as we can while preserving the fabric of the game.??
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