I don't watch any Junior hockey, so I can't really compare the college
game to that level, but I do see a fair number of NHL games.  I just
don't buy that not having the full shield makes the players that much
more carfeul with their sticks.  I'm a Red Wings fan, so those are the
games I tend to catch.  Off the top of my head, in many cases months
after the fact, I can come up with Krzystof Oliwa breaking Todd Gill's
arm; Kirk Maltby breaking Valery Kamensky's; Fedorov's attempt to
decapitate Zdano Chara; and Paul Kariya spearing Nick Lidstrom in the
face.  And, of course, perhaps the key moment in their playoff demise
was when Lidstrom high-sticked Theo Fleury (though, given their ten-inch
height differential, that was more "sort-of-high-sticking").  As I said,
that's just what I can think of without searching.  Granted, not all of
these instances involved getting the stick all the way up to the head,
but there does seem to be a trend of players being willing to risk
injuring the opposition in the course of routine actions.
 
The issue of checking from behind was brought up in this regards.
Again, I haven't noticed that this is much less prevalent in the NHL.
Besides, before declaring that we should get rid of the mask on this
issue, shouldn't we at least try having the refs actually call majors
for this like they're supposed to instead of always finding a reason to
only hand out 2 mintues?
 
J. Michael Neal
 
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