This type of hits will no longer be legal in the NHL anymore. This is the right decision by the NHL, people will argue that it will take hitting out of the game but that is incorrect. You can hit effectively hit someone without having to hit someone in the head.
LOS ANGELES – A passionate debate about hits to the head that has lasted the better part of a year was officially settled Thursday night when the NHL Board of Governors approved a new penalty for next season.
The penalty for a lateral, blindside hit to the head, which will be called "illegal check to the head," is a five-minute major penalty, as well as an automatic game misconduct. The League also will consider supplemental discipline.
t was unanimously approved by the Board of Governors during Thursday's meeting, the first for the body since last December. The rule was proposed during the spring edition of the General Managers' Meeting in Florida after several controversial hits during the season.
"I think we are really pleased with where it is," Columbus GM Scott Howson told NHL.com. "But I also think it is something really fluid and we will have to continue to work at it if we see the need."
Cam Neely, the freshly minted president of the Boston Bruins, also stressed that vigilance would remain necessary, but was happy to see a mechanism in place to protect the League's players.
"I think it was important for the League to try to address this as quick as possible," Neely told NHL.com. "The GMs got on board, the Competition Committee got on board. Obviously, for the health of the players, it is good to get a rule like this in place and try to get it out of the game and get to a situation where you are going to have fewer concussions because of it."
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