Viewpoint

The shoulder pads and elbow pads player's wear these days is like a suit of armour right out of Star Wars. No wonder players end up with concussions when a 240 lb player, suited in this armour, comes in at 20 miles an hour or more, and crashes into the oponent. It's like a loaded Mac dump truck slaming into a wooden wall. You could sit back and watch the wall disintegrate.

Soften up the pads and there would be a great deal fewer injuries. I believe checks would not be so intense either.

Of another concern, where have the boarding and charging penalties gone? In years past, if a player took more than three or five strides to deliver a check, it was a charging or boarding penatly. Today I watch players skating all the way acroos the ice surface to deliver a bone crushing check.

The NHL governing bodies have the power and the authority to protect the players against serious injury, yet still deliver a hard hitting, exciting hockey game. Get with it gentlemen.

Andy A.

It was a clean hit. End of story. Come on, people, these guys are high strung, top-notch athletes who are chasing after their dream: the Stanley Cup. If you see a guy coming around your net with the puck, tight against the post, you're going to run him. As you get closer, you see his head is down, do you stop?

Hells no.

You drop your shoulder, and you paste him to make sure that the puck stays out of the net, and he learns his lesson. The time will come when Armstrong forgets himself and crosses the blue line with his head down, and somebody else will do it to him. How many forwards did Scott Stevens leave unconscious on the blue line? He was a hero for that, and this is no different.

It was a clean hit. End of story. Come on, people, these guys are high strung, top-notch athletes who are chasing after their dream: the Stanley Cup. If you see a guy coming around your net with the puck, tight against the post, you're going to run him. As you get closer, you see his head is down, do you stop?

Hells no.

You drop your shoulder, and you paste him to make sure that the puck stays out of the net, and he learns his lesson. The time will come when Armstrong forgets himself and crosses the blue line with his head down, and somebody else will do it to him. How many forwards did Scott Stevens leave unconscious on the blue line? He was a hero for that, and this is no different.

There's no way to take out hits to the head or to enforce a "hit to the head" penalty as some have suggested.

NHL players are not clones, of the same height.
Having such a rule would mean that tall players like Zdeno Chara would not be able to hit anyone at all since 95% of the players out there measure up to his shoulder. On the flip side little guys like Gionta & St-Louis would never get called.

The only solution is to have shoulder/elbow pads where the hard plastic shell is not exposed, it's present but covered by a layer of foam. And even then some players would still get knocked out by monster hits.

Former NHL'er Moose Dupont tells me that this rule used to exist in his playing days and somehow disappeared.

Murray isn't a hypocrite. But Neil--who thinks his hit on Drury (without the puck) was clean while Armstrong's hit on Eaves (with the puck and on the doorstep)--is.

These types of hits and many other issues with the current state of the NHL were discussed at our weekly "Oldtimers" coffee gathering,this morning. There is no easy way to voice complaints with the NHL. And, would they listen? As a group, we have lost interest in the NHL, the constant rule changes, inconsistant refereeing, and, the Americanization of the game. We have stopped watching. For good hockey, go to your local rink.

Armstrong ran at Eaves from the red line, that means it is charging - he's gotta go. It doesn't matter that if Eaves had gone along the boards or shot the puck around the boards he never would have got hit ... or at least not like that.

Let's just take hitting out of the game too along with fighting. Then all NHL games would be more like the All star game - and we all just love that kind of hockey.

Let's smarten up - just get rid of the ridiculous equipment the players wear. Let the player doing the hitting feel some pain too.

I think the problem the NHL should be looking at isn't headshots, its helmets. Maybe if Eaves was wearing a helmet that protects your head, and not just a white bucket, he wouldn't have the concussion. Football players take headshots all the time, and their concussions are much less severe and numerous than the NHL. If the NHL made players wear head protection that protected the head on all sides with padding, and had all players wearing shock protection mouthguards, there would be a definate decline in the number of concussion related injuries sustained. Maybe the players themselves should just take it upon themselves to wear them, afterall, it's their careers at stake.

In all the discussion of the hit, Eaves made the choice to try to come out in front of the net right by the post. If he goes wider no problem but any defenceman if he can will cut off that dangerous path to the goal. Also what does a 6ft6 player have to do to make a shoulder check on a 5ft 10 one and vice versa......

So, if a player accidentally scratches another player's chin with a high stick, that's a double minor penalty (4 minutes). If he takes a long run at someone, puts his shoulder into his head, and injures his BRAIN, that's a good hockey hit????

According to Bryan Murray, the hit was legal. Fair enough...I take no issue with that. The question is whether it should be a legal hit.

The trouble for game of hockey is that the players have become bigger, faster and stronger. At the same time, the equipment has become harder and the boards and glass in the arena's less forgiving.

It is simple physics that players who are bigger, stronger and moving faster are going to deliver a stronger force on a recipient. It doesn't matter whether we are talking about fighting, direct body checks or incidental contact. With these "stronger forces" are going to come more and more severe injuries. There is no way around it.

The question for hockey is whether they want to control or limit the likelihood of such an injury before a player gets severely injured (a brain injury, paraplegia or quadrapelegia) or a young star is forced to retire at an early age due to injuries.

Other sports have taken action. The NFL has banned blows to the head, leading with the head in making tackles, and has protected the quarterback. It has not taken away from the game.

The NHL has done nothing. It has burried its head in the sand and has stated "hey, it has always been this way, so let it continue."

My prediction is that the league will not do anything to change the game and limit the risk of injury until someone is sevely injured and it gets slapped with a huge lawsuit or a star player (ie. Sidney Crosby) gets hurt. Then the NHL will wake up.

I have no problem with contact in the game...it makes the game what it is. But at the end of the day, it is only a game and none of the players should be forced to risk long term brain injuries to play it.

I also want to see skilled hockey players play the game. I dont want Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin or any other star be forced to retire as a result of a brain injury caused by a "legal" hit.

What a brilliant moment. By league standards, Armstrong's hit on Eaves was clean, and kudos to Bryan Murray for saying so, especially given Neil's history.

Armstrong, like many others, is always looking for a big hit because it can bring a huge change in momentum - and he has a history of head shots. They can't be made illegal, or Chara could never hit anybody. But with the larger, faster players in today's game, changes are necessary.

Two areas for change: 1) Some equipment is more weaponry than armor. Lose the hard shoulders and elbows - they don't protect the wearer. 2) Change the rules on hitting. Checks must be delivered with shoulders or hips; keep the hands and sticks down. And try the NFL blocking rule: the checker must have his head in front of the target.

And finally, enforce the charging rule.

At the end of the day, there are fans of violence, and there always will be. But let them watch wrestling or boxing. Hockey is a good enough game to stand on its own. Let's watch the great players play, rather than wait for them to recover from injury.

Unfortunately, the NHL management is not equipped to step up and do what's necessary. Somebody was quoted recently as saying the league has built its reputation on physical play, and has to live up to it. This adolescent thinking is holding the game back.

We're at the point now where players are so big and so fast, the minimal-contact euro-style game is becoming almost necessary. With these players, the hits will still be big enough. If a Crosby or Ovechkin or Staal has a career dramatically shortened from a bad hit - or a good hit - hockey loses, and so do its fans.

Don Cherry, despite his heart and moments of lucidity, is an anachronism. His spouting engenders that which is wrong: love of hockey for the violence, and not for the hockey. (Yes, fighting must go too!) It's time to grow up.

I twas a celan hit, end of story. When will we stop criticizing hockey and just enjoy the show. A man got hurt, it's pro sports, this stuff happens even at all levels of hockey. Stop the endless examination on how to make the game better, it's already AWESOME!!

I think one thing that has led to the increase in big/violent hits (& often resulting fights) is that the refs have not been penalizing those who throw the big hits on players who don't have the puck. For the first approx. 55 games this year, players would receive an immediate interference penalty for doing so. But... some fans & GM's wanted more hitting back in the game, so the refs started allowing these hits. The result is more injuries, more outraged players & subsequent fights. (p.s. Scott Stevens may not have been penalized for many of his big hits, but many of them were delivered after the other guy had passed the puck - clear interference.) Allow the legitimate hits, but penalize the late hits.

They should definitely make shoulder pads smaller and look more closely at what is charging and if the player could have made an equally hard hit but avoided the head.

Players shouldn't have a good chance of getting concussed on a legal play.

I am a proud Sens fan, and I am completely OK with Armstrong's hit on Eaves. It was, is, and always should be a legal hit in hockey. The real issue here (which was lightly touched on in the article) is the equipment that players wear. The elbow and shoulder pads are made of hard plastic, not the leather pads we had in the glory days of hockey. Imagine if boxing gloves had a plastic flap on the fist to "protect" the wearer's hand from injury :o

If you want to make these types of hits cause fewer injuries, address the equipment and not the players.

It all comes down to equipment. Going back to softer shoulder pads, elbow pads, etc is the only answer. Not only will it better protect the person being hit, but it will also eliminate some of the reckless abandon players showcase with their hits. Players would soon learn that big time hits such as Armstrongs will leave the aggressor with bumps and bruises as well and they may think twice as to just how hard they really need to hit the other person.

The combatants are endored with much bigger, stronger and technically sound bodies wearing robocop-like equipment but still playing on a surface as tiny as a postage stamp.

But hey it costs money to enlarge the ice surfaces and given that money is our dog (come on just flip the d & the g) well the players will just have to suffer.

Oh, add in a very distinct lack of respect and discipline (and not just on the physical level) amongst all of our society and we have a recipe for harm.

Unfortunately, the entertainment (once known as the sport) of hockey will like everything else in our society have to be totally mandated for our own "good" 'cause like, like we are... (time to move and/or to think outside of one's own universe, eh ?).

It's sickening to hear the enlightened NHL 'expert' media praising Armstrong for his great hit and chiding Eaves for not seeing it coming. Nobody has the guts to mention that the Pittsburg defenceman pushed Eaves into the hit or that the rulebook uses distance travelled to define charging -- and Armstrong went a long way and accelerated pretty hard to make the hit. Later that same game, Shubert of the Sens made a similar hit on a penguin but the self proclaimed CBC experts Mclean and Cherry chided the refs for only giving him 2 for charging instead of 5! Which is it guys?? Please try to disguise your biases a little better. And remember, it's not black and white -- Armstrong may have charged Eaves just like he charged Emery in the previous game and Koivu a few months back - Lets not make a head-hunting goon look like a hero or else we might as well be watching WWE! Cherry even had the nerve to repeatedly and proudly show replays of the hit and then even show replays of his praise of the hit!!

haha Lindsay, they'll never get rid of contact in hockey. The sport is based on the physical play as very much as the skill is. Take a look at football, do you see them talking about getting rid of the equipment? No? There's nothing that can be done about this. If you watch the Armstrong hit, he didn't even jump, was a clean hit and Eaves, along with the rest of the NHL should learn to play with their head up, or the league will be filled of Eric Londros'.

If you have any complaints, complain to the league.. none of this crap was happening until Bettman, who is American by the way, decided to change all the rules to make the game faster, which is EXACTLY why all these shoulder-to-head injuries keep occuring.

I commend Murray for acknowledging that the hit by Armstrong was clean on Eaves. But would he say it was clean if he lost a star player like Spezza, Heatley or Alfredson, I think his tune would be different.
I don't think you can penalize players for giving a clean bodycheck, players need to keep their heads up and that is taught at a very young age.

I'll second Lindsay's comment above. I feel it is completely irresponsible for the league ( and us fans and spectators) to continue to worry about injuries when there is still touch icing. Icing races do nothing to add to the game, yet result in many injuries, some career ending. Fix the Icing rule if you are so concerned about player injuries, and fix the shoulder pads/mouth guards, etc.

Bravo Bryan Murray! In the replays I saw, Armstrong started his sprint on Patty from right on the blue line. You could see him pick up Eaves and drive at full speed in a straight line, never letting up. That was charging. There was no comparison with Chris Neil's Hit on Drury. My big B^&&h is the running of goalies, 2 minutes? I want to see Chris Phillips start at center ice and go full speed with an "intention" of a pass and end up on top of the Pens Goalie. He will be needing a stretcher.

Kudos to Murray for speaking the truth.

Now if only all of the whining fans could read his speech, it would be laid to rest. That 10% who whine and complain each time a clean hit is laid and a player on their "team" gets knocked down.

Let us hockey fans enjoy the game the way it should be played, at a professional level and not at a house league/rec league level.

Ban the Football style shoulder pads then we'll see who wants to throw their bodies around.
Also get rid of the helmets. There were fewer head injuries when nobody wore them???

I think that it was time for someone on the Pens to retaliate. They have had trouble protecting their star (Crosby) in the past, and I think that they were trying to send a message to the Senators that they weren't going to take it. The hit was legal, according to the rules, and I applaud Murray (Senators coach) for not overreacting. Moral of the story: the Pens need a decent enforcer to protect the future of the franchise. Remember how important Marty McSorley was to the Oilers in terms of protecting Gretzky. When he went to the Kings, the deal included McSorley (this was before the Donald Brashear incident). Defensemen all around the league will be less apt to beat on Crosby if the Pens get a player who will retaliate appropriately.

Plain and simple explanation, it was a good hit. It sucks that Eaves had his head down and got injured. But the simple fact is that its the playoffs and Armstrong is that type of player. If that situation presents itself, he's gonna throw the hit. It isn't nice to see but its gonna happen and its part of the game. Props to Murray for realizing that. There really isn't a way to get this out of the game, there are already ridiculous penalty calls for tripping when guys step on a stick. If you start calling clean hits, the players aren't going to know what to do.

Everyone seems to be comparing the Armstrong hit to the one by Chris Neil on Drury. They don't even come close. It was terrible that Eaves got hurt but Colby is taller and is known for hard hitting. Saku was up and skating after the play almost immediately after the hit by Armstrong. The shot by Neil on Drury was sneaky and in no way was it fair. Chris Neil hit him from the blindside (even though Drury shouldn't have been admiring his pass), he stuck the shoulder out and specifically aimed for Drury's head. That was intent to injure! Neil is the one that reminds me of Claude Lemieux, he continously dishes out cheapshots and then skates away before the opposing enforcer can challenge him. What retribution will he do, try to take out Crosby or Staal? He won't stand up to anyone like Gary Roberts or a real tough guy. At least Colby Armstrong stood up to Souray (even though, Sheldon took him down).

It was a class move of Murray to acknowledge it was a clean hit and an unfortunate incident. It's the first rule of hockey, keep your head up. At least the real experts of the game recognized that fact, even if the rabid fan doesn't.

On a final note, I don't agree with any hit to the head. It's unnecessary, a good solid body check can impede the play of an attacking player. Hockey should still be physical, but headshots should be dealt with, no matter how severe they are. Maybe the player at fault should sit out the same number of games that the injured player is out for.

Murry is well spoken, any words against should have them, pwned, its hockey grow up, if u don't appriciate the physical play dirty or not then go back to your base ball, or watch rugby

Thats absolutely crazy. Drury unloaded the puck well before Neil hit him. This is different. Eaves still had the puck in his posession and his head was clearly down. Drury was hit from the side. So those are two entirely different situations. Murray had no choice but to close his mouth. If the Drury hit had never happened he would be complaining all while showering the reporters in the front row with saliva.

Should ban all physical contact . Players
then can play without any equipment.
No fighting either... Way too Barbaric.
We can then see skill on ice. Much like
a never ending all-star game. Let's get
real. The physical play and just the potential of scraps help sell the game.
Knee on knee hits and hits from behind
should be the concern. If we want to help
protect players, please introduce no touch
icing.

Murray may not be a hypocrite but Chris Neil sure is. He said that Armstrong’s hit was a little late and I'll bet anything that he'll be looking for retribution before the series is over and done with. As far as I'm concerned, Neil's hit on Drury was more of an intentional head shot than that of Armstrong's. In either case, it's a part of the game. What's worse about the whole situation is that the hit Schubert laid on Scuderi was much more dangerous but it has garnered far less attention.
As for the debate on "head shots", as I alluded to in Elliotte Friedman's blog, I feel the new anti-obstruction rules which the league has so vehemently enforced has more to do with the rash of players being injured with bodychecks than anything else. These guys are bigger, stronger, faster, and better trained than ever. If they are allowed to build up speed and throw checks without any impedance whatsoever then, obviously, the consequences will be much more devastating.
Before the league jumps the gun and enforces an automatic penalty for head shots, as is done in the case of careless misuse of the stick, I think they should consider lightening the rules regarding obstruction. I know that’s highly unlikely given the progress it has made, but if they continue to add rules that prevent the likelihood of a player getting injured then before long bodychecking will be outlawed altogether. Sometimes reconfiguring old rules makes more sense than the addition of new ones. Fans want to see professional hockey, not recreational hockey.

Murray is one hell of a coach and good for him taking the high ground on this situation. He has the rest of the team to think about and instead of dwelling on at best an unfortunate situation, he is focusing on the next game in the series and how the team needs to adapt without Eaves in order to out play the pengs. Go Senators Go!

Brad

Question: Was eaves wearing a mouth guard?

I know with the Kaberle incident he was not wearing a mouth guard.

Softer equipment may be the way to go but, I also think research into the mouth guard is key to these kinds of injuries.

First off Iam not a Pens fan, even though I live very close to where Crosby grew up. Armstrong had no choice in the manner in which he hit Eaves, Eaves was crouched down comeing around the net his head was low and lined up with the shoulder of Armstrong, if he had tried to hit him different he may have missed him.
The players need to keep there heads up a shoulder in the chest would have been the result had Eaves kept his head up and been looking around. There is a reason why this only happens to some people, this is not house league hocky. Every time Lindros got hurt his eyes were looking down.