Re: College Hockey...getting way too soft!
Watch the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBp10hz6rzw
I happened to fly next to an NHL ref last week with over 1,000 games of NHL experience. We got to talking about the whole contact to the head point of emphasis this year at the NHL and NCAA levels. I shared the Martin hit video with him on my computer screen. He looked at the play, the call and the position of the refs (at least that he could see). He said
in the NHL, the hit probably would have not been called illegal, because the NHL point of emphasis is more about the blindside hit (T-bone) vs the head on collision where the injured player has his head down. However, he sees the NCAA point of emphasis on CTH as broader, and aimed at injury prevention.
NHLers are more skilled players and skate with their heads up more often, while not all college players do, and he agreed with the WCHA's penalty call on the ice as an interpretation of the NCAA rule.
The above portion of your comment makes good sense.
It was interesting to note that the official did not consider the hit a blindside hit and did not consider it a penalty in the NHL, but that the interpretation of the new NCAA rule will result in penalties.
Because of the speed of the game collisions like this may be difficult to avoid. Typically a player in Malone's position and comming in with that speed would have to make a split second decision as to make a play for the puck or to make the check. Typically a player would need to focus on the puck and player positioning from the waist down. Looking up to see where a players head was positioned would take his eyes off the puck. In the NHL, by looking at the movement of the puck, a player delivering a check should be able to distinguish whether the hit is going to be a blindside hit or not.
Where the referee stated that NHLers are more skilled and skate with their head up more often seems to be the crux of the dilima. That comment seems to indicate that inexperienced college players need to keep their heads up more and also seems to indicate that college players should be aware that inexperienced players may skate with their heads down. College players and NHL players that get caught with their head down are generally quick to admit they they made a mistake.
Most important lesson to be learned here is that the new rule will prevent some injuries and will prevent many avoidable contacts to the head, however if you skate with your head down you are accepting a risk that you could be seriously injured. But on a positive note, the seriously injured player, that made a serious and possibly deadly mistake by keeping his head down too long, can now draw a penalty, even if the contact was unavoidable with no intent to injure, under the new rules. Not much of a consolation prize for playing with your head down.
Under the new rules teams will still aggessively check their opponents and history shows that the more experienced teams are often the most effective in checking their opponents into submission. Evidence of this can be seen in last years NC game and more recently in North Dakota's impressive sweep of Wisconsin last weekend where North Dakota had a 98-32 shots-on-goal advantage for the whole weekend, largly due to relentless checking.
Relentless checking wins games, and is appreciated at the next level in the NHL. The new rule is designed to prevent injury not to prevent relentless checking. Relentless checking will continue because teams still want to win and because players want to play in the NHL. My best advice to anyone that plays against North Dakota is that, North Dakota has an experienced team, you will be checked often, and some collisions may be violent, so that if you choose to play against North Dakota you must accept that there may be a heightened risk of injury to anyone choosing to play with their head down.
