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.
>
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