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Oh boy, I wonder how many goalies will have concussions.
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The solution to this, stay in the crease if you don't want to get hit. Not every hit is going to be a highlight reel hit, and not every hit will cause a concussion. I'm not convinced there are more concussions in the game now than 15 years ago. There is much more awareness now, and every potential concussion is treated as a full on concussion. Every hit where the head is involved to any degree is labelled a headshot. 15 years ago, anything not apparently obvious, you are back on the ice to try and skate it off. I'm sure guys dealt with mild headaches and symptoms and just played through.
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Originally Posted by AzNightmare
it really should be first come first serve.
If it's along the boards and the goalie beat the player to it, have the respect and not go for free a hit.
Goalies aren't fair game for hitting as I posted earlier.
If it's a breakaway race, goalies have the chance to gamble and race for the puck.
Goalie either gets it first or get humiliated as the player goes around and shoots into an empty net.
Once again, first come first serve.
Not a free opportunity to lay out the goalie if he reaches the puck first.
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I fully understand the restrictions in mobility, and the limited side and back protection of goalie gear. The solution to this, stay in the crease if you don't want to get hit. If you leave your crease, doesn't mean you'll get hit. Keep your head up, just like every other player. If you play by the first come first served rule, there will ALWAYS be some level of discretion because the game moves at such a high pace.
In the Lucic/Miller incident from earlier this season, Miller beat Lucic to the puck by maybe half a second, likely less. You can tell that Lucic made no attempt to avoid the collision, instead bracing himself and sending Miller flying. But Miller also made zero effort to protect himself. In Lucic's defense (and I hate to have to defend a Bruin) you can also say he was just protecting himself, there was no guarantee that if he tried to avoid contact that Miller wouldn't have also turned the same way and resulted in a collision where both were in a vulnerable position, its a 50/50 game of chicken at this point. What if they both arrived to the puck at the same time, and the collision was made? What if Lucic had gotten to the puck a fraction of a second before Miller, but both were still on an obvious collision course? Miller made zero effort to protect himself because he assumed that Lucic was not going to go for the contact regardless of who got to the puck first, and that is something I think that should change. If Miller knew that there was a chance he would get steamrolled if they arrived at the puck at the same time or was beat out by Lucic, he would at the very least brace himself to a degree for contact, or else not made the risk of getting hit and just played the shot.
Ovi laying out Subban is absolutely great to watch, but Subban was able to prepare himself for the hit and sent himself flying. Had he not elevated, Subban would have been hurt much much more even though the hit would not have looked as spectacular. With any position, usually the most devastating hits are the ones where the receiving player is not aware the hit is coming and cannot properly brace or prepare for it.
If we are going to give goalies special no hit privileges, they should not be allowed to throw anything either, whether it be hacks to the back of the leg or full out crosschecks.
Odd how the 2 questionable plays above both involve Bruins players
But back to the no-play trapezoid, which is a different issue from making goalies fair game. It serves no function whatsoever IMO.