Here's what the kid who was hit had to say. Then make up your mind.

“It was a straight hit to the head. It may have gotten some of my  
body, but it was a hit to the head,” said Hendrickson. “I was in a  
situation where I was vulnerable, and he took advantage of that and  
hit me up high, head on.

“My head was hurting and I was going to stay on the ice until I  
talked with the trainer and got my bearings.”

The mid-ice hit, near the UMD bench, followed a faceoff; O’Neill  
curved back toward Hendrickson to make the hit. He had put an elbow  
into UMD defenseman Justin Faulk eight minutes earlier that some  
observers thought could have been a major penalty.


On Mar 28, 2011, at 11:25 AM, J. Michael Neal wrote:

> On 3/28/2011 9:32 AM, Matt Sullivan wrote:
>> Since when can't you hit a player when their head is down???
>
> Since we started learning just how damaging concussions are.  If  
> you derive enjoyment from watching people suffer brain damage, I  
> can't stop you.  I, however, have been opting out pretty rapidly.   
> I can't watch NFL football anymore, and I'm losing patience with  
> the NHL.  Fortunately, I discovered that women's hockey is a great  
> game, with a much lower injury rate.
>
> Given how large and how fast the players are today, the only way  
> you're going to stop the escalating rate of concussions is to  
> prevent hits to the head.  It doesn't matter whether the checked  
> player's head is up or down.  Either eliminate those hits, or  
> you'll see a continuing parade of players to the hospital.  The  
> research being done on concussions in sports is frightening if you  
> care about the players' well being, particularly the evidence that  
> an accumulation of blows that do not produce concussion symptoms  
> can do serious long term damage.
>