Matt Cooke's hit on Boston's Marc Savard during the Penguins' 2-1 victory over the Bruins Sunday afternoon is a prime example of the "gray area" involving hits to the head that NHL GM's will try to clarify as they meet this week in Florida.
Split-seconds before impact Cooke appears to be lining up for a legal, open-ice check. He did not raise his elbow and his arm stayed at his side. He's not coming from behind Savard, but Savard's immediate post-shot position has put him in a vulnerable position nonetheless.
Cooke connects here in the initial moment of impact, narrowly missing Savard's shoulder and catching him straight in the head. Savard's body is still leaning forward from the shot he threw at the Penguins' net. Savard probably did not know Cooke was coming until this point, leaving him hanging in this vulnerable pose.
Savard's head snaps back after impact, his grade two concussion is likely suffered at this moment. Cooke's elbow remains down and he certainly did not leave his feet, but this impact has put Savard's season in jeopardy.
So this is the hit that will be the talk of the GM's this week. No penalty was called on the play and the NHL does not have any clear rule banning a shoulder to the head. Yet I would bet my bottom dollar that Cooke will face a suspension for this one.
The IIHF has rules in place that make any hit to the head a penalty and, like in the NHL, suspensions can follow. If you watched any Olympic hockey you saw this rule come into play. There were several instances where hits that would be passed off as seemingly innocent in the NHL were called penalties in the Olympics. And this is due the IIHF rules on hits to the head.
I'd say most everyone, myself included, believes that Cooke will be staring down a suspension. Any hit of this nature that leads to a player being taken off on a stretcher should warrant this. I know it. You know it, but it's time for the NHL to make it official. Whether they take the rules as far as the IIHF is yet to be seen.
It will be nearly impossible for the NHL to completely eliminate these big, concussion-inducing hits without eliminated checking all together, which would cause hockey to cease being hockey. But a clear-cut rule involving hits to the head would eliminate much of the confusion. The suspensions given and not given (I'm looking at you Mike Richards) have been inconsistent and the penalties called on these plays have been all over the place, ranging from majors and game misconducts to no call at all.
Per request, here are some shots of the Oct. 24 Mike Richards hit on Florida's David Booth:
Richards' approach, leading with the shoulder.
Richards connects with the back upper part of his shoulder.
The concussion-causing head snap. Booth missed 45 games with a concussion. Richards was given a major penalty for interference and received a game misconduct. No suspension was issued by the NHL.
There are certainly more instances for comparison than this Richards hit, as one poster mentioned, but the similarities it has to the Cooke hit make it a big point of discussion, as does the extent of Booth's injury. It's certainly not the exact same hit, but both involve a shoulder to the head.
Suspension, penalty and injury information on hits to the head can be found here:
http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Tom-Mast/Hits-to-the-Head/136/26848
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