Sports Perspectives

By Beaker

I like good, hard, old fashioned physical hockey as much as any guy but some body checks these days are becoming more and more difficult to defend. Enter Philadelphia Flyers forward Mike Richards.

Yes, the hit Richards administered on David Booth of the Florida Panthers was “clean” – which seems to mean ‘as long as your elbows are down’ now. However, his shoulder went straight to Booth’s head.

The NHL doesn’t seem all that concerned about protecting players from concussions – judging their record for punishing them.

There’s a fine line between a professional body check and thuggery. Richards is by no means a dirty player. Heck, I’m of the opinion he’s the most complete player in the world he’s that good. Richards plays the game on the edge and sometimes, as is apt with all player of similar style, he’ll go overboard.

I know fans will counter you must ‘keep your head up’ at all times and there is no advice more valuable than this. The problem I have with this is these days, even players who play with their heads up still manage to get blindsided. The speed and power of the game is so elevated in the contemporary game that hits literally come in the blink of an eye.

The NHL should step in and protect players from hits to the head. This means cracking down – hard.