Clean… but Kaberle really should send Stajan a card or something.  What a terrible pass to expose Stajan to that dman.

Posted by HockeyinHD on 12/19/09 at 10:45 PM ET

Clean. Gorgeous hit.

Posted by loochnessmonster on 12/19/09 at 10:46 PM ET

How’s about pick your head up?

Posted by Sig from DC on 12/19/09 at 10:54 PM ET

Not sure you can blame Stajan—it reminds me of a quarterback leading a receiver across the middle, right into a blind shot by a safety (in this case, Ronnie Lott or Jack Tatum!).

Posted by nosferatu from o hai o on 12/19/09 at 11:37 PM ET

If the league had not all but outlawd ( almost always results in a penalty now) the HIP CHECK, then guys would not be getting hit with elbows, and forarms.

While the hit was , in my opinion,  borderline legal - there is NO QUESTION when looking at the one angle of the replay, that it was the elbow which broke that guys nose. No question.

PLEASE, PLEASE bring back the Hip Check, and get rid of plastic elbow & shoulder pads NOW!!

Posted by Down River Dan on 12/20/09 at 12:41 AM ET

If the league had not all but outlawd ( almost always results in a penalty now) the HIP CHECK, then guys would not be getting hit with elbows, and forarms.

Exactly what I came here to say.  Bring back the hip check. 

There are some movements that support using soft only pads, including helmets, with no hard shells.  Forces of checks need to be absorbed, without having the shockwave transmitted to players brains and organs that have few or no pain receptors. 

It wouldn’t cost that much to look into it. Hell, CCM or whoever should just pay some minor league to do it for a season; it it works out they’ll make a ton of money over competitors in the first few years.

But hip check.  Yeah. The line is blurry enough to the point that every hit like this is argued to be clean by the fans of the hitting team and dirty by fans of the hittee. Clean check?  Yes.  Necessary to hit so high? Nope.  Find a way to encourage BODY checks, and discourage checkers from putting most of the force of a check at neck level.

Posted by MarkK from Maryland on 12/20/09 at 07:28 AM ET

Ditto on MarkK and Dan.  Sure, it was a clean hit but unnecessary.  While I have nothing against getting a good hit in, they’re called body checks for a reason, not elbow hits or face hits.

Kudos to Stajan for getting up a minute later though.  Tough guy.

Posted by Matt Fry from Winnipeg on 12/20/09 at 11:23 AM ET

I am a bruins fan but I think it was a head shot. Boychuck did hit him in the head with a elbow.

Posted by goon from Grand Forks, ND on 12/20/09 at 12:15 PM ET

Brutal, but clean hit. Boychuk has his arm tucked in when he makes contact so I don’t think he was leading with his elbow and therefore not an elbowing penalty. Boychuk isn’t even moving his feet when he makes contact so he didn’t target him from across the ice like we’ve seen so often and he is standing him straight up at center ice so no hit from behind or into the glass.  Stajan bascially turns into the hit.

The only thing doubtful is that Boychuk’s arms are up a slightly, but that’s instinctive to brace for the hit and not to line up the head.  I don’t expect players to check with their arms dropped down at their sides.  I’m suprised there is only an inch height difference in the players since Stajan takes the brunt of it up high.  I think Stajan is just leaning much lower to the ice because of the bad pass by Kaberle.  Kaberle is the one that should have been jumped by the Leafs.

Posted by Hockey1919 from Montreal on 12/21/09 at 10:50 AM ET