NEW YORK – The NHL is targeting hits to the head again, broadening the landmark ban that is only one year old.
After outlawing only shots to the head that came from the blindside, the NHL board of governors approved a pair of rule changes on Tuesday that Commissioner Gary Bettman hopes will decrease the number of concussions suffered by players.
Players will now face a minor penalty for any hit that involves primary contact to the head and shots that target an opponent’s head and make it the principal point of contact. The original wording to Rule 48 applied only to hits that came from the lateral or blindside. Those words have been eliminated.
This ban, effective immediately, applied to hits anywhere on the ice and from any direction.
“I do think the NHL has been well ahead of it than everyone else,” said Brendan Shanahan, the league’s vice president in charge of player safety. “We took the step to put in Rule 48 this year. As the season was going along, we felt that the players were responding well to it and that the game could handle going another step further.”
With hockey concussions on the rise and the pressure to eliminate all
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