We all saw the hit Brooks Orpik put on Dan Boyle last night:
After the game, Rangers coach Alain Vigneault reportedly thought Boyle would be fine. But the 38-year-old didn’t look particularly fine trying to skate off the ice, and he didn’t return to the game.
Many observers felt Orpik deserved to be penalized for a hit to the head.
Ex-referee Kerry Fraser, however, deemed the hit legal.
Fraser’s full explanation is here at TSN.ca. But it boils down to Rule 48, which was reworded in 2013 to clarify that only “avoidable” contact to head would be punished.
According to Fraser, the contact to Boyle’s head was not illegal, because:
- Boyle placed himself in a vulnerable position. - The Rangers player materially change his body and head position immediately prior to the hit delivered by Orpik. - Orpik attempted to hit squarely through his opponent’s body and did not “pick” Boyle’s head.
The NHL has applied the reworded Rule 48 before. Remember when Radko Gudas was not suspended for a hit on Scottie Upshall?
(3) Here, Upshall assumed a posture that made head contact on an otherwise full-body check unavoidable. pic.twitter.com/IGmlYp5WzD
— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) October 10, 2014
Fraser, for the record, does not like the fact that Orpik’s hit was a legal one. In fact, he feels it’s “time to rethink the end game and re-draft” Rule 48 to outlaw hits that are “designed to inflict excessive punishment on a vulnerable player.”