Some NHL players don't like to be hit.

Mark Spector from sportsnet.ca has posted an interesting article on hitting and European player's influence on the NHL and how some would rather watch the North American brand of hockey opposed to Euro hockey. I think the European brand of hockey has a propensity to be less physical that North American style of hockey.
Personally, I like a rougher and more physical game where an occasional fight breaks out, but I don't mind a nice mix of players from all over. That being said I don’t want to see a team made up entirely of players from Europe either. I believe the Boston Bruins are a nice example of a well balanced team.

There is also a story about Don Cherry and how some have grown tired of his antics and his xenophobia. Personally I like Cherry.

Now that these players are in the league, they’re not so sure they like being on the other end of one of those hits. “Guys have families, livelihoods,” mused Canucks bruising defenceman Shane O’Brien. “There is so much coverage now, and hits to the head have become such a topic of conversation.”

Rypien, who complained about a hit from Ben Eager in Game 1 of the Chicago-Vancouver series, made $522,000 this season. He has not yet celebrated his 25th birthday.

Hudler, who was crushed on a perfectly legal check from Anaheim’s Mike Brown, pulled in $1.15 million. At age 25 and with his skill level, he could accumulate between $10-20 million more dollars in NHL salary before his career is complete.

The risk of providing for the next two generations of your family and never having to hold another job after age 35 however, is that one day a guy like Darcy Hordichuk might catch Hudler admiring another pass. And whether or not Hordichuk senses vulnerability, well, it won’t matter to him.

“No, not at all,” Hordichuk said. “A guy like Hudler, if you catch him in Game 1 he might not be playing with a full deck of cards for the rest of the series. And the other [Red Wings] too. They’ll be aware.

“I honestly don’t think the [Brown hit] was a penalty. It was Hudler’s fault — the puck was literally right there. With Ripper, the puck was long gone.”

Well, longer gone anyhow. Which, we’ll argue, left Rypien more time to get off the train tracks.

The referees threw Brown out of Game 1 for a hit that was deemed not worthy of suspension. Eager got two minutes for his hit on Rypien. Again, no suspension.

Of course guys like Henrik Zetterberg and the Sedin brothers want those hits out of the game. They are always going to be the fly, never the windshield. We get that.

But even in a game as tough as hockey, weathered, experienced hockey men — including a few reporters and TV types we all know — whined and cried for Colin Campbell to take action when Brown caught Hudler with that text book, elbow-tucked-in, body check.

Detroit’s Mike Babcock is an excellent coach, and seems like one tough S.O.B. But in the culture that is forming in today’s NHL, even he couldn’t accept a hard hit on one of his players, without labeling it “a vicious, dirty hit.”

This is what makes North American hockey more compelling than European hockey: