Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Fix It, or Heads Will Continue to Roll



The roller coaster ride continues well after Vancouver's Aaron Rome ended the season for Boston's Nathan Horton early in the first period. (Today, the NHL told Rome he has the rest of the playoffs and summer to ponder his actions.)

The hit was not from the blindside, many will argue. Few if any will support the elevated shoulder shot to the chin of Horton as a legal hit. But many will tell you that Horton should have kept his head on a swivel to recognize the road ahead. He did not, and that is where we are now.

I've argued this point in this blog and another one, so I'm not going to spend more time stating the obvious. (Besides, it is too easy to be mocked for suggesting that players be mindful of being responsible.) Keep your head up, and if you are going to hit someone, respect the game and your fellow players. Do the right thing, not the vicious thing. You can hit someone hard without taking their head off.

The two Boston papers blame the league for everything that went down last night, but look at the Globe's temperature's rising if somebody doesn't do something take on the situation. It's a pretty rollicking read. Do you feel the envy/loathing of how such a hit on Horton or any Bruin would have been dealt with by the Big Bad Bruins in the old days? Yes, I do. I love it/I hate/Just don't do it to my team.

And the Herald comes off as the more mature neighbor, saying the league failed to pull these weeds a long time ago. Now look what has come to seed in the TD BankNorth Garden.

Heck, we all have to shoulder some of the blame. I see a legal hit where you do not. We all scream. At the end of 2009, I realized that until we are on the same page, we will all draw different conclusions to the same basic question: how can we keep this game rough and tough without killing everyone on the ice?

We still cannot. That is why I cannot emphasize enough that players have to keep their heads on a swivel when they come through the middle of the ice. Defenders have to draw a line and say I will hit somebody in the chest rather than finish a check dangerously high. (I don't know how to help Zdeno Chara, who even if he were to crouch would still take 5-foot-5 Nathan Gerbe's head off; perhaps Big Z could just put his mitts on Gerbe's head and lift him like a Weeble and place him back on the bench and out of harm's way.)

That's where the NHLPA and the league have to settle the issue. Workplace safety, hmm. That seems to be a perfect topic for the union. And for management. Perhaps we can lock the two sides in a room and have them trade head shots, blindside checks and legal but dangerously high checks like the Three Stooges until they exit, more than a bit googly eyed, and say enough is enough.

The time is now. While you ponder your answer, I'll freshen that drink on the bar.

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