Oh please yes.  This is still the best idea, from my opinion. 

Don’t punish a guy for catching somebody from the front with his head down.  THAT’s the part of ‘keep your head up’ everybody’s talking about.  However, there’s nothing good in blindside headhunting.

Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 03/09/10 at 12:46 PM ET

+1 to what JJ said.
The hits from behind are the ones where guys are in such a vulnerable position where they can wind up another Derek Roy.

Posted by MOWingsfan19 on 03/09/10 at 01:02 PM ET

Totally agree… sadly it took a hit from a goon like Cooke on a star like Savard two days before a GM meetings to get something done with this.

Posted by TJ on 03/09/10 at 01:19 PM ET

Agree with both of you.  This would be a very logical move to make, which means it probably won’t be approved.

Posted by pens fan in baltimore on 03/09/10 at 01:20 PM ET

TJ, I would argue that Cooke is not a goon but an idiot. I’d say someone like Derek Boogaard is a goon.

I looked at the dictionary definiton and laughed:
1 : a stupid person
2 a : a man hired to terrorize or eliminate opponents b : enforcer
In my view it technically works for both of them, but I’d reserve ‘hockey goon’ for a Boogaard-type guy.

Posted by Nathan from BC on 03/09/10 at 01:27 PM ET

Nathan,

I agree with you, but let’s see what Vinny Lecavalier says about dirty hits from Cooke. It’s not his first

Posted by TJ on 03/09/10 at 01:38 PM ET

If they could harshly-penalize all hits along the lines of what Cooke threw at Savard the NHL would be in a much better place. I’m all for a crushing hit at the blue line akin to what J.J. is describing above, or battling it out along the boards, but watching one player poach another player from the blindside with a hit aimed directly at their head with the intent of putting them out of the game (with brain damage, literally) is a viciousness not needed.

Posted by some kid from brooklyn on 03/09/10 at 01:40 PM ET

It’s sad they need a specific rule. Dirty is dirty, which is why we’re talking about this.

Posted by redxblack from Akron Ohio on 03/09/10 at 02:20 PM ET

I agree with you, but let’s see what Vinny Lecavalier says about dirty hits from Cooke. It’s not his first

A Goon’s a guy who fights and can’t do much else, not a guy who can play but takes advantage of and tries to hurt other guys. Cooke can play and certainly doesn’t fight, so he’s out on both counts.

Think a guy like Colton Orr or Jody Shelley, not a guy like Matt Cooke/Cal Clutterbuck.

Other than that aside, I’ll second what everyone else said.

Posted by steve on 03/09/10 at 02:26 PM ET

TJ, oh no definitely not his first, and by my count he’s done it (dangerous blindside hit to the head that could be avoided) three times this season: Anisimov (suspension), Simmonds of LA (no penalty), Savard

I’ve watched Cooke in Vancouver and Pittsburgh and he definitely deserves his reputation (cheap/late hits/dirty/doesn’t answer for his actions). I found it interesting that last season he mostly stayed away from that part of his game, though it didn’t detract from his proper game at all (straight lines, forecheck, physical play, puck retrieval, pk, leadership). In the playoffs a bit and especially this season he’s somewhat reverted back to his ‘rat’ days in Vancouver, making those cheap plays/late hits/slew foots, except he has the confidence and respect of his teammates. I think that’s an important point. Last year I had to defend him for his past, pointing to how he hadn’t done these things since he got to Pittsburgh, which was true-he gained my confidence and respect, of which he had none from his days in Vancouver.

In an interview earlier this season he brought up how he’s fought three guys this season, and how that disproves all his detractors. He said after Savard that he was hit the same way the shift before. He finds excuses because he knows the truth but doesn’t want to believe it himself.

Don’t punish a guy for catching somebody from the front with his head down.  THAT’s the part of ‘keep your head up’ everybody’s talking about.  However, there’s nothing good in blindside headhunting.

Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 03/09/10 at 12:46 PM ET
Agreed.

Posted by Nathan from BC on 03/09/10 at 02:30 PM ET

How is it that 95% of the people can agree immediately when they see a dirty hit, but the NHL needs a committee and years to create a rule to ban it? Hit someone blindside or prone its a penalty. Done. Intentionally target the head, a major.

Chara is 12 feet tall and doesn’t continually drive his elbow into everyone’s head, yet guys below 6 feet consistenly make contact with their elbows. Seems easy to police out of the game if the NHL is serious about it.  In soccer the whole point is to kick the ball and yet they have a rule for a dangerous kick, seems if you have half a brain you could figure it out.

Posted by hockey1919 from montreal on 03/09/10 at 03:30 PM ET

Dirty hits are like porn.  You know it when you see it but it’s hard to define in words.

Posted by Callmejerry from Prague on 03/09/10 at 04:43 PM ET

Why just blindside hits to the head?  The Cormier hit on Tam wasn’t blindside and that was as dirty as they come.  What’s the problem with banning headshots altogether?  Like the previous poster said, Chara doesn’t go around hitting everyone in the head even though his shoulders (and in some cases his elbows) are at the height of some players.  I’ve yet to hear an answer to this point. 

Yet I always hear the height excuse for Chris Pronger when he hits someone in the head.

Posted by Callmejerry from Prague on 03/09/10 at 04:51 PM ET

Why just blindside hits to the head?  The Cormier hit on Tam wasn’t blindside and that was as dirty as they come.  What’s the problem with banning headshots altogether?  Like the previous poster said, Chara doesn’t go around hitting everyone in the head even though his shoulders (and in some cases his elbows) are at the height of some players.

What does Cormier have to do with what’s being discussed at the GM meetings?

Cormier’s hit is already grossly illegal as both the NHL and QMJHL rulebooks are currently written and he was given a lifetime ban by the Q. If that isn’t harsh enough, pray-tell what penalty would be severe enough?

And the “previous poster” is only correct since Chara has, for some unknown reason, quit playing physical hockey this year. Before he went soft, he was constantly making contact with his gloves to back of the opponent’s head due to his size, though nobody was getting hurt because he’s not a malicious cheapshot artist like Richards and Cooke.

The Richards/Cooke hit is, as the rulebook’s written, arguably legal, even though there’s (Milbury notwithstanding) nearly unanimous opinion among GMs, players and fans both that it shouldn’t be and that Cooke should be suspended anyway. The problem with “banning headshots altogether” is that Chara pawing at the back of another guy’s head to get him away from the net is harmless, correct hockey and Richards/Cooke exploding into an unsuspecting guy’s chin from halfway across the ice is anything but.

The difficulty is in somehow clearly codifying this distinction in writing.

Your preferred solution will have guys getting 10 game suspensions for harmless, accidental hockey plays and gutless cheapshots instead of just gutless cheapshots. Count me out.

Posted by steve on 03/09/10 at 06:39 PM ET

Why hasn’t the nhl suspended cooke yet?  It’s pretty much a forgone conclusion.

A better question is why is this just hits to the head?  Why isn’t also slewfooting and kneeing?

Posted by stoneman from vegas on 03/09/10 at 11:17 PM ET