Heroic Shrimp
New member
Nik the Trik said:I think one of the things that Kadri's hit does, aside from provide some beautiful and long overdue karmic retribution, is highlight what seems to be an ongoing confusion regarding hits near the boards and is a situation where I think the NHL really needs to, if not show any actual leadership, at least make some clarifications.
Look at the chunk of the rulebook Potvin posted. A ref has to "take into consideration" if a player turned their back but does that mean it negates the act entirely? Mitigates it? There are a lot of sports where players turn their back to shield the ball from another player, sports where measures of contact are allowed in efforts to gain control of the ball, and that's seen as a legitimate tactic, not as a reason why other players are allowed to clobber them.
So when Ceci says that he saw Kadri coming and turned to him in an attempt to not get demolished I can't help but feel that whatever the NHL's position on the matter is, it's not getting through to some people. Either the Kadris of the world need to be told to lay up in that situation or the Cecis of the world need to be told that they should brace themselves for the hit they see coming. Right now, and the inconsistency of Shanahan's decisions don't help, it seems like the NHL's position on the issue is "both" which seems like it leads to just a ton of dangerous hits and a really arbitrary seeming discipline process.
Well put.