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Brian Burke’s dirty hits solution: Hug it out

Brian Burke

Brian Burke, general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, speaks to reporters after the NHL board of governors meeting in Montreal, Wednesday, June 24, 2009. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

AP

Brian Burke is a quirky man with quirky (but sometimes brilliant) ideas. This much was made clear in an idea Burke brought up to Darren Dreger of TSN: could “bear hugs” be the solution to the league’s problems with unsafe hits?


In other words, should the league fix its open ice hit problems by taking a page from professional wrestling?

Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brian Burke is convinced a good hug may go a long way to curbing a constant safety issue in the NHL - hitting from behind.

Burke is lobbying the league to allow what he calls a “bear hug,” where a player, usually a defenseman, is allowed to wrap his arms around the targeted player, for a fleeting moment, while he takes him into the boards.

Burke says this change would avoid the “billiard-ball” force hits that exist now where all of the force is transferred directly from the “hitter” to the “hittee.”

Well, I can’t say the idea is insane but can you imagine the slippery slope this could cause with interference/holding/obstruction? Would refs think that a defenseman was simply protecting another player instead of impeding his progress to the net?

Perhaps the league should just be cut-and-dry instead. Something tells me if the NHL had a zero tolerance policy on hits to the head - whether they come from the front, side or from an overhead parachute approach - things would be a little different. Or maybe the league needs automatic suspensions for the egregious charges by Tanner Glass and James Wisniewski (it almost seems like “charge” is to light a word for those moments ... perhaps they should receive a penalty for “stampeding”?).

Still, I appreciate the spirit of the idea. The league needs its most creative minds to take this issue seriously and come up with a solution that will straddle the line between “letting them play” and “allowing them to suffer irreversible brain damage.”