The Broadening of Rule 48 Takes A Step Big Forward

Added on Jun 15, 2011 by J Merrill in

UFC & MMA

When concussions started to become more and more of an issue for the National Hockey League they made a commitment to handle it head on. When they designed rule 48, put in place to decrease the concussions in the league, they knew it would be a rule that would evolve as they watched it in use. A committee made up of players, owners and general manages has agreed with the GM’s decision to broaden the the scope of rule 48 from what it is at this moment. The last stage for the amendment is to pass a vote that will be placed in front of the NHL’s board of governors on June 21st. If the rule passes the vote than the rule change would be in place for next season.

The next step before the board of governors meeting and vote, is to write the specifics of the rule change itself. This task has been left in the hands of league executive Brendan Shanahan and NHLPA executive Mathieu Schneider, and they expect little resistance if they put it together the right way. Schnieder said “We’re definitely headed down the right path in expanding Rule 48. What it’s coming down to is getting the wording down on paper properly and Brendan and I will continue to talk over the next few days and try to nail something down.” The main reason he doesn’t expect any problems is because he believes everyone wants the same thing, and there is no doubt everyone wants hockey to be safer if they can make it that way. Schnieder exclaimed “In the end we all want the same thing, we all want to make the game as safe as possible. We know it’s a physical game, we know there’s always going to be injuries and there will always be concussions, but we want to make the game as safe as we possibly can.”

When rule 48 was designed, the one thing everyone agreed on was that the “Blindside” hits were the ones that did the most damage, and they thought it was the one type of hit they definitely wanted to get rid of. However, the rule proved to be limiting in its practice, as only blind side hits were technically illegal in rule 48, and if the hit wasn’t a blindside hit and directed at the head the league was handcuffed in regards to suspensions and fines. According to the new Rule 48, any hit that targets the head and where the head is the principal point of contact will be illegal. NHL Executive Rob Blake told the media after the meeting “It’s very similar to what we talked about at the GMs meeting in the sense of broadening the rule. The exact interpretation will go forward. But we had a good understanding that the union, the players and the NHL together want to go forward for the safety of the players.”

More players were added to the committee for the meeting and this vote. Mike Cammalleri from the Montreal Canadiens said he is confident that the NHL can make these changes and still keep the integrity of the game in place. For the players, that was the main goal, as no one wanted to hockey as a whole to change. Cammalleri said “I like where we’re going today. For me I like the idea that we’re going, I think our game’s plenty exciting and plenty physical and I think we can do that and still have a game that’s safe and a game that parents want to watch with their children, a game they want their kids participating in so we’re moving in that safer direction for sure.” He also said the fans will feel the same way as the players, he continued “I think we’re putting some parameters just to make things simpler, more I guess black and white so that it is a safer game for everybody to play and I still think we’re covering the excitement that everyone wants to see.”

Schnieder concluded that when he stepped back, and took the season as whole, he felt that Rule 48 could be better. In fact, he implied it was there duty to the players to make it better, he concluded “There were hits this year that we saw that we want eliminated from the game, and we need to make sure that we don’t end up back in this situation next year. Without getting real specific, players and managers want to keep the physical play in, want to put some onus on guys who are on the ice, but at the same time I think there are hits that we want to rid ourselves of and by expanding Rule 48 we’re hoping we’ll be able to do that.”