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Venting on Voracek Hit-John Gilbert |
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I have been reading a lot of comments about the Kronwall hit on Voracek and many people are saying that its a clean hit. However, I definitely do not believe this to be the case.
Now... to start....we all know about rule 48.
48.1 Illegal Check to the Head – A hit resulting in contact with an opponent's head where the head is targeted and the principal point of contact is not permitted. However, in determining whether such a hit should have been permitted, the circumstances of the hit, including whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position immediately prior to or simultaneously with the hit or the head contact on an otherwise legal body check was avoidable, can be considered.
Let start with the contact to the head itself... Kronwall DEFINITELY makes initial contact with Voracek's head. You can see that by the way Voracek's helmet crumples around his head.
Secondly, did the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position? Absolutely not! Some may argue that Voracek was leaning forward or that Kronwall is much bigger than he is. In my opinion, these things are irrelevant. Voracek was simply skating, he was not reaching for the puck like Letang was last week.
Lastly, Voracek was heading up ice AFTER reaching for the puck and was in a vulnerable position at the time of the hit. This is where the term "keep your head up" always comes into play. However, is it not the opponent's responsibility to ease off on a huge hit when another player is clearly in a dangerous situation?
Looking at Kronwall on this hit, there are several facors that need to be addressed:
Elbow: Did Kronwall's elbow strike Voracek in the head? No
Was Kronwall's initial contact to the head of Voracek? Yes
Did Kronwall leave his feet? No
Was Kronwall targeting the head of Voracek? Probably not
Now here is the kicker... If you watch that video a few times, the term "launching" will keep coming to mind. We have seen many suspensions this season from that very term. Andy Sutton was suspended for "launching" himself into Alexei Ponikarovsky. It's a very dangerous play!
In the following video link, the 0:38 second mark shows Voracek look directly at Kronwall. Kronwall at that moment is going west to east across the blue line. Literally a second later at 0:39, Voracek puts his head down and goes for the puck. Simultaneously, Kronwall shifts to north/south, sees the vulnerability of the opponent and delivers the hit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QtipTlOscg&feature=g-all&context=G2080fd2FAAAAAAAAAAA
This does constitute as a very serious hit to the head. Players continue to try and "launch" themselves into players and it's causing initial contact with the head. Kronwall thrives on big hits, but players need to understand that by forcefully lifting their body into the player, the are causing a shoulder to make contact with the head. If Kronwall had stayed level, the hit may have been far less damaging and he may not have made contact with Voracek's head at all. The fact that Kronwall waited until Voracek put his head down and went for the puck tells me that his mindset is not 100% clean. I understand that players want to be a game changer or make that game changing play, but there has to be a sense of hockey smarts involved.
Kronwall will not have a hearing with the league and I do feel that the ball is being dropped on this. Rule 48.1 is cloudy at best. Let's go over it once more with commentary throughout..
48.1 Illegal Check to the Head – A hit resulting in contact with an opponent's head (the head was definitely the first point of contact) where the head is targeted and the principal point of contact is not permitted.(I truly don't see how you can tell if someone is targeting the head or not unless it's blatently obvious.) However, in determining whether such a hit should have been permitted, the circumstances of the hit, including whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position immediately prior to or simultaneously with the hit or the head contact on an otherwise legal body check was avoidable, can be considered. (basically this is saying that a player putting his head down is making himself available to be crushed)
In conclusion, maybe the problem doesn't lie in the heads of players. Maybe the problem is with rule 48 itself. By leaving a question mark within rule 48.1 on whether the head is targeted on a particular play or not, is something the NHL needs to address. Most concussions today are probably not from targeting the head, but "clean" checks that happen to make contact with the head. Rule 48 may have fixed some issues with the concussion epidemic, but it's far from being flawless.
Perhaps it's the NHL's time to "keep their head up."
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