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Questionable hits need to be curbed by NHL

Staff photo by JASON BEHNKEN

Bolts goaltender Mike Smith is one of many NHL players who have been affected by recent violent hits.

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 9, 2009

Updated: 11/09/2009 07:01 am

TAMPA - Debates rage throughout the course of every NHL season whenever hard hits occur. Panelists across Canada and the U.S. will dissect situations when a player gets hurt on the ice, they will look at every angle and decide whether the victim put themselves in a vulnerable position. They will argue whether a hit was clean or dirty, and most often they side with the player delivering the hit.

But maybe it's time to stop the debate between clean or dirty hit and decide what is necessary and what is not.

Already this season the likes of Florida's David Booth, Minnesota's Petr Sykora and New York Rangers' Chris Drury are out with concussions on hits that have been, or will be, discussed. Tampa Bay's Victor Hedman missed Saturday's game in Montreal because of a concussion sustained from a hard hit delivered by Ottawa's Chris Neil.

And in a highly publicized junior hit into the end boards, Kitchener 16-year-old defenseman Ben Fanelli was sent to the hospital when hit by Erie's Michael Liambis, which resulted in a suspension for the remainder of the season for Liambis.

The debates rage on whether the hit was clean or dirty and whether or not Fanelli turned his back to create the situation. Instead, the debate should be whether the hit was needed.

Same thing with Neil's hit on Hedman or Mike Richards' blind-side shoulder check on Booth. Sure, in the eyes of league rules, those hits may not have crossed the line of legality and old-school mentality states keep your head up because injuries are part of the game.

But what happens, as players become bigger, faster and stronger, when these type of violent hits no longer just keep players out for a few games or weeks, but rather puts them in the hospital with severe enough head trauma that they live their lives in a vegetative state. Or worse yet, the violence of the hit is so severe a life ends on the ice.

If the league doesn't do something to curb these kinds of hits now, to stop hits to the head, tragedy will occur. And we'll all be shocked when it happens.

The time to act is now, not after it happens.

Trade possibility

Quite a few scouts followed Tampa Bay through its four-game trip, but none more noticeable than Edmonton.

The Oilers were at all four games, with Kevin Lowe in attendance at Tuesday's game in Toronto as well as Saturday in Montreal. The Oilers are believed to be interested in acquiring some help on defense, which happens to be an area where the Lightning have depth.

While the team would love to part ways with Lukas Krajicek and his $1.475 million contract - he played in all four games on the trip - the name of Andrej Meszaros has surfaced as a possibility after the Ottawa Sun claimed the team is unhappy with Meszaros' play. Considering the team gave up two NHL defensemen, Filip Kuba and Alex Picard, along with a first-round pick to get Meszaros, that would be a big mistake to admit to after a year-plus of watching Meszaros play.

Reporter Erik Erlendsson can be reached at (813) 259-7835

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