The NHL is moving to ban head shots before the playoffs, kickstarting a rule-changing process that has never before been enacted mid-season.
Rule changes are typically only brought in during the off-season.
"It's a process that has never been done before in the season," Colin Campbell, the NHL's senior vice-president of hockey operations told The Globe and Mail. "But this is so important an issue that if we can possibly avoid just one concussion, we should do this."
Last week, the general managers of the NHL voted to institute a blindside head hit penalty.
But for the penalty to become official it must be endorsed by the NHL Player's Association -- which is considered a sure thing -- and then sent to the league's competition committee.
If the committee approves the rule, it is then forwarded to the NHL's Board of Governors for final approval. Since the rule change is happening in-season, the vote must be unanimous. One team owner could scuttle the entire process.
Toronto Maple Leafs president and general manager Brian Burke says he supports putting in the new rule as soon as possible.
"It's important because we're seeing hitting in part of the ice surface . . . that we never experienced before and it's not technically illegal," he told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel Wednesday afternoon. "We want hitting in our game, we don't want to ever do anything that reduces hitting in our game, but this particular hit is dangerous and has no place in the game."
Burke says the reason for the recent spate of concussions is that new coaching systems have players applying much greater backpressure on the puck carrier, who is not expecting a high hit to come from behind and to the side.
Sam McCaig, a senior hockey analyst with Yahoo Canada, says the recent head hits involving star players has forced the NHL's hand.
"The bodychecking is a much more intense undertaking today, there are more violent collisions, the players are much bigger, they're faster," McCaig said of the recent scourge of concussions in the NHL.
The early March hit on Boston Bruins star forward Marc Savard by Pittsburg Penguins forward Matt Cooke seemed to be the final straw for the league.
Savard, who was knocked out by Cooke's blindside hit to the head, is most likely done for the season.
The GMs voted to institute the rule change soon after, but the NHL found itself in yet another public relations controversy when it decided to not suspend Cooke.
Even Don Cherry -- often an advocate for the rougher aspects of the game -- was outraged by the decision, and between the public backlash and internal pressure from a group of GMs, the NHL promptly changed course.
The league is preparing a highlights DVD to send to all 30 teams in hopes of expediting the rule.
The league says the DVD will demonstrate to players and coaches what will be acceptable and unacceptable under the proposed new rule.
"What they're going to understand is six or eight examples, both ways, of what is and isn't acceptable," Campbell said. "If we can get this out right away, maybe the players will think, 'Boy, if I throw a check from this way, I've really got to make an effort to give him a body check, or go through the body. I can't hit him head first.'"
