Ideas Explored for Reducing Dangerous Hits

With injuries and suspensions from dangerous hits on the rise in the first month of the N.H.L. season, some general managers are supporting an effort to broaden discipline so that coaches and clubs, as well as players, are punished.

Through Wednesday, the N.H.L.'s department of player safety has suspended eight players without pay for a total of 35 games for incidents that occurred after the regular season began Oct. 1. That does not count the Buffalo Sabres' John Scott, who has already served a three-game suspension pending a disciplinary hearing Thursday over a blindside hit that injured Boston Bruins forward Loui Eriksson.

During the first month of the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, four players were suspended, for a total of seven games. In the first month of the 2011-12 regular season, the first year of supplemental discipline through the department of player safety, three players were suspended, for a total of 11 games.

'I certainly hope this doesn't continue,' said Brendan Shanahan, who leads the department of player safety. 'But as we often say, we're in there watching every night, and if anyone thinks we're going to back off or get sick of pulling guys in for hearings and handing out suspensions, they're wrong.

'We're not prepared to allow this to go on.'

Shanahan's department enforces the policy set by the league's general managers, who will meet Nov. 12 to begin discussing possible rule changes, a process that will continue in March. The general managers may consider a measure that would fine coaches or teams more regularly to induce them to rein in wayward players.

The discussion would come amid growing concern over the long-term effects of concussions, and by a desire among N.H.L. executives to safeguard against potential lawsuits like the one brought against the N.F.L. by former football players.

About a dozen general managers are believed to be interested in expanding disciplinary measures for dangerous hits. One idea being considered is to automatically fine coaches or teams after three players have been suspended. In the 2011-12 season, Buffalo, Boston and the Chicago Blackhawks each had three suspensions. Last season, the Philadelphia Flyers, the Vancouver Canucks and the San Jose Sharks had two suspensions apiece in a 48-game season. Sabres General Manager M. Darcy Regier said he would prefer to see clubs fined rather than coaches. His coach, Ron Rolston, was fined an undisclosed amount in the preseason for 'player selection and team conduct' after Scott initiated a line brawl by squaring off with the Toronto Maple Leafs star Phil Kessel.

'Without speaking to any proposal, I'm much more in favor of the organization versus the coach, if the league thinks it's appropriate to give a fine,' Regier said. 'The coaches may not even have the ability to determine who's going to be on the team. These are decisions that are made organizationally, not just by coaches.'

The list of players who have been suspended for illegal hits this season includes Buffalo's Patrick Kaleta, for a hit to the head of Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson (10 games); Maxim Lapierre of the St. Louis Blues, for boarding and injuring San Jose defenseman Dan Boyle (five games); Cody McLeod of the Colorado Avalanche, for boarding and injuring Detroit Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall (five games); Ryan Garbutt of the Dallas Stars, for charging and injuring Anaheim Ducks forward Dustin Penner (five games); and San Jose defenseman Brad Stuart, for elbowing and injuring Rangers forward Rick Nash (three games).

In many cases, the victim has been a high-skilled star player, while the perpetrator has been lower on his team's depth chart and known for physical play.

Shanahan noted that there had been upticks in dangerous play before - in late December into January two seasons ago, and often in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs - after which things usually subsided.

He said most N.H.L. players were responding positively to the explanatory videos his department had issued with each suspension, and to other educational efforts.

'There are a few who aren't, and we're going to continue to address those guys that aren't and those teams that aren't,' he said.

Shanahan said players were increasingly advocating the removal of dangerous play from the game. The highly respected veteran Teemu Selanne of Anaheim has called for tougher suspensions.

'I don't think they're enough,' Selanne said in Montreal last week. 'The next night, the same thing happens.'

Shanahan said he believed the current policy was getting results.

'I do think the majority of the players are getting it,' he said, adding that his department saw numerous 'safe landings' each night.

'We see a player where, maybe three, four or five years ago, really could have laid somebody out, and they minimize a check or they turn away from a check, or they simply stick-check to separate a man from the puck,' Shanahan added. 'It doesn't get a video. It doesn't get mention on a blog. It just gets noticed by us.'

But beyond individual responsibility, Shanahan acknowledged that the culture of the game - one in which 'you're allowed to hit, you're asked to hit, you're supposed to hit and you're supposed to hit hard' - might constitute a bigger obstacle.

After Vancouver's Alex Edler was suspended for three games for a hit to the head of San Jose's Tomas Hertl, Canucks Coach John Tortorella said the hit had been a good one.

'I would teach that play to all our defensemen - the one he was suspended on, we're teaching that,' Tortorella said. 'The league just happens to believe it's suspendable.'

Shanahan found Tortorella's comments harmful.

'It's certainly detrimental and nonproductive - and it's a challenge - to have comments like that after we've identified a play as dangerous and illegal,' Shanahan said. 'It costs Edler over $150,000. It puts him in a position where the next one could be more. So it is certainly counter to what we're trying to message and change players' behavior.'

Shanahan was more encouraged by Sharks Coach Todd McLellan's comments this month.

'Everybody wants a physical team,' McLellan told reporters. 'But I don't think anybody wants the players to take it over the line.

'When you're in that position, let up - we'll understand. We might lose our marbles right off of the bat, but when you sit back and think about it, you did the right thing. We have to accept that as a coaching staff, and I think the coaches in this league are willing to accept that.'

Shanahan noted that coaches, like players, were going through a transformation and that they were not all going at the same speed.

'Changing the culture doesn't happen overnight,' he said.

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