3 Taking a Hit
Is there nothing else for the fans to complain about?
Written by Hosea C
Canucks Access
Ban hitting in hockey. I couldn’t believe such a suggestion would ever come up.
But that was exactly the case after Edmonton Oilers Raffe Torres nailed Detroit Red Wings Jason Williams two week ago with a clean hit. Williams was knocked out, landed on the ice face-first, bloodied and ended up with a concussion. It wasn’t a pretty sight to say the least.
Okay, so maybe the consensus wasn’t to ban all of hitting, but more specifically, hitting to the head. Sure, that’s a reasonable argument, but how would the league enforce such a rule? The refs already have enough problems making judgment calls.
The hit by Torres was as clean as any other body checks we see around the league, but the only problem with that hit was that William’s head was down. His attempted wrap around was read perfectly by Torres who leveled him, shoulder to chin.
To my knowledge, the league’s head office reviews every hit that results in an injury or a penalty. This means high ‘dirty’ hits will result in some form of punishment. In this case, it wasn’t considered illegal by NHL standards. I agree high ‘dirty’ hits have no place in this game, but why did all the fuss arise after this legal body check?
The only way to ban hitting to the head would be to ban hitting altogether. How boring would hockey be if that happened?
Most people, who suggest that hitting should be banned, probably don’t understand the game of hockey. If hits were prohibited, the amount of diving would increase dramatically. It’s already bad enough right now. Also, imagine how many more players would skate with their head down because they know that they won’t be pummeled. Sure, injuries would decrease, but so would ticket sales.
Hitting to hockey is like milk to cereal, you can’t have the latter without the former. If players keep their head up, the chances of getting drilled might be lowered. They know what they are getting themselves into when they signed up to play hockey.
If people don’t like hitting, well, there’s always soccer.
