He may be stating the obvious at this point, but New Jersey Devils GM Lou Lamoriello told CBC Radio today that the head shot rule proposed by the general managers will not be fast-tracked and implemented this season.

Many critics and analysts have noted the need for the rule to be implemented immediately, but Lamoriello, one of the GMs instrumental in making the whole thing happen, has said that he doesn’t think the rule will make it into practice this season. The reasoning given by Lamoriello was that there apparently isn’t enough time to put the rule in or to go through the necessary process to introduce new rules.

Apparently that means that, while the rule won’t be put into practice officially, Colin Campbell will be given the authority by league managers to lay the hammer down on offenders that violate what the rule would be. In other words, Campbell can dish out all kinds of supplementary punishment should another Matt Cooke incident occur in the remainder of the 2009-2010 NHL season.

Pressure has come from veteran players like Bill Guerin, Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis, as well as executives like Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, to get this thing shoved through as quickly as possible. And with Cooke going famously unpunished for his blindside hit on Marc Savard, you can imagine the rationale behind the urgency.

Even so, the rule proposal won’t be rushed through.

Some GMs are arguing, on top of the time issue, that the rule’s immediate implementation may simply not be the “best idea.” Along with implementing any sort of rule that could somehow “limit” physical contact, there are a number of managers that fear hitting is going to be taken out of the game outright and they “want to be sure” that the rule change doesn’t impact the physical, aggressive nature of the game.

Of course, all the rules in the world can’t mandate respect for other players. At the core of this whole blindside issue is the notion that a player in a vulnerable position on the ice shouldn’t be taken advantage of and shouldn’t be seen as an opportunity to injure or punish in a physical fashion beyond the normal realm of hockey honour.

Blindside hits are often committed by a certain type of player. Most of the league’s offenders are, indeed, repeat-repeat-repeat offenders. While the league’s proposed blindside hit rule puts something down on paper, more structural change is required to create a sense of constancy among players.

The nature of hockey is physical and it always will be, yet many of the league’s general managers fear that the nature of the game could change if there are continuous rule changes of this nature. At the root of this problem is a clashing of hockey ideals, I believe, and it is this clash that prevents rule changes like this one from being fast-tracked.

Any sports league can implement immediate rules, but the National Hockey League’s general managers want to ensure that they get this rule “right.” How “right” does a rule about not hitting a guy when he’s not looking have to be?

In order to send the right message to players as quickly and urgently as possible, the National Hockey League MUST implement this rule immediately and they must level a suspension on Matt Cooke. The delay only makes the managers look impotent in the face of what is quickly becoming a league epidemic and could further the NHL’s poor reputation when it comes to protecting its star players in the modern era.

Posted by Jordan Richardson.

The following is an opinion piece.

When the Rangers stuck Sean Avery in front of Martin Brodeur on Sunday afternoon, they probably never imagined that he would go to such lengths to attempt to distract the New Jersey netminder. Yet there he was, waving and ranting and raving like a man possessed.

Avery played more like a basketball defender than a hockey player, facing Brodeur and waving his arms and stick around in an attempt to distract the goalie.

Brodeur reacted in expected fashion, trying to follow the puck and swat Avery away like a fly. Lots of skaters make their living in front of the net on the power play of course, like Tomas Holmstrom or Ryan Smyth, but nobody has quite taken the art of screening to the level that Avery did in Sunday’s game.

So was it innovation or was he breaking some sort of unwritten rule? Gary Bettman said he discussed the matter with Colin Campbell, the NHL’s senior vice president of hockey operations, on Sunday afternoon. “It’s something that we’re going to address, probably in the realm of either goaltender interference, or unsportsmanlike conduct. We’ll put the clubs on notice before we make that interpretation. But the ingenuity and creativity of things we’ve never seen before never ceases to amaze us. But we’ll deal with it,” he said.

Goaltender interference? Sounds a little suspect to me. I’m no Sean Avery fan, as my posts here document, but I’ll be the first to admit that calling what he did “goaltender interference” or “unsportsmanlike conduct” is a stretch. Avery had no contact with Brodeur, didn’t touch him, and didn’t touch anyone else. The only risk in the play was that Avery’s stick was up in the air. It seemed that Chris Drury actually skated into the play to tell him to put his stick down, too.

Avery can be ingratiating, annoying, and one hell of a pest. He’s also a ridiculously smart player that levels the foundation of “Canadian honour hockey” that can often be pathetic. His ability to get in the heads of his opponents (and sometimes his own teammates) shows just how different a player he is. But is he a bad player? No. He scored a goal moments after distracting Brodeur.

Teammates supported Avery. “Show me the rule book,” Brendan Shanahan said. “What’s the rule? If they’re going to change a rule in mid-season, they need a 30-0 vote of the Board of Governors.” Shanahan knows the rules, too.

Critics and reporters throughout Canada, like in the Globe and Mail, are suggesting that Avery needs to have the book thrown at him for his clownish antics. What? These are the same critics and reporters that suggest that fighting needs to be introduced even more into hockey and that the fisticuffs are a “normal way to solve disputes.”

Let me see if I’ve got this straight: Avery clowning around in front of the net and distracting Martin Brodeur by making himself look silly is bad for hockey, despite the notion that there was no contact and NO goalie interference to speak off. Full-on bumps and hits on the goalie are tolerated (ask Roberto Luongo after last year’s playoffs) and no calls are made. But somebody waves his arms around in front of the precious Brodeur and the league considers a penalty and an amendment to the rules? Are you kidding me?

Had it been almost any other player, the league would have ignored the incident and possibly even praised its innovation. But once it’s Sean Avery, look out. The entire foundation of hockey is being tossed asunder. Hold on to your hats, purists, Sean Avery’s on the ice.

It was a horrifying moment.

Midway through the third period of Sunday night’s Florida Panthers versus Buffalo Sabres game, Panthers’ forward Richard Zednik was cut across the throat by a teammates skate. Thankfully, he is in stable condition after surgery to close the deep gash on the right side of his neck.

The incident delayed the game for fifteen minutes and led to discussion about whether to call the game off altogether. Zednik was behind the play and skating into the right corner of the Sabres’ zone when teammate Olli Jokinen was upended by Sabres’ forward Clarke MacArthur. Jokinen fell head-first to the ice and his right leg flew up and struck Zednik directly on the side of the neck.

Clutching his neck, Zednik raced to the Florida bench leaving a long trail of blood behind him on the ice. When he arrived, he nearly fell into the arms of a team trainer who quickly applied a towel to the cut. Zednik was then helped off the ice by the trainer and teammate Jassen Cullimore and escorted to the Panthers’ dressing room.

“The surgery was successful and he’s resting comfortably in the hospital,” Panthers spokesman Brian Goldman said after the game.

“We shouldn’t have finished the game,” Jokinen said. “I saw the replay, that it was my skate that hit him in the throat. I think we were all in shock. I’ve never seen anything like that. There are bigger things than finishing the game. It was terrifying. I didn’t think anyone on our team was thinking hockey out there after an injury like that. If it was my call, I would have gone to the hospital with him.”

NHL vice president Colin Campbell consulted with Sabres general manager Darcy Regier and referee Bill McCreary in a tunnel after Zednik was loaded into an ambulance. Campbell, who was not available for comment, attended the game in part because his son plays for the Panthers. In a statement, the NHL said that Campbell talked to commissioner Gary Bettman and decided to continue the game after knowing that Zednik was stable, that trainers had stopped the bleeding, and that the teams were willing to go on.

“I can fully understand if they wanted to cancel the whole game,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “It was pretty solemn. There wasn’t a lot being said on the bench. There was just more concern for Richard than anything else. When you see something like that, it isn’t about playing anymore. But I said, ‘We’re going to finish the game and it’s going to be what it’s going to be.”‘

All of us at HockeyDraft.Ca hold Richard in our thoughts and prayers at this time.

The NHL has suspended Philadelphia Flyers goon Riley Cote for three games after a vicious elbow to Matt Niskanen of the Dallas Stars late in a 4-1 loss Saturday night. Cote also received a match penalty on the play.

The NHL also took this time to “warn” the Flyers. Big deal.

The NHL has passed down a total of five suspensions to the Philadelphia Flyers so far this season. Steve Downie, Scott Hartnell, Randy Jones, and Jesse Boulerice were the other four players to be suspended by the league. This rash of suspensions resulted in a telephone call from everyone’s favourite NHL commissioner Gary Bettman along with league disciplinarian Colin Campbell as they called Philly GM Paul Holmgren on Monday.

“We were kind of put on notice more than anything and that’s fine,” Holmgren said from his Philadelphia office. “We understand the consequences and we’ve just got to be a smarter team.”

While reviving the Broad Street Bullies for a new generation appears to be Holmgren’s plan, time will tell whether the style of play will actually work in terms of putting wins on the board. Playing tougher hockey doubtlessly makes an impact in the NHL, but leading the league in penalty minutes and suspensions can’t be too good.

The Flyers currently sit second in the Atlantic Conference behind the New York Rangers and fourth overall in the East, so it could be argued that something could be working.