The DoPS is the Department of Player Safety. It is run by George Parros. Parros may be one of the coolest people in the NHL. He has an Ivy league education, spent his career punching faces, loves Swedish Death Metal, has a clothing line called “Violent Gentlemen,” has a fabulous moustache, and on top of it all, he has won a Stanley Cup.
He is also, almost universally, considered to be very bad at his job as the head of the DoPS.
Most NHL fans agree on nothing. However, it is really hard to find people saying: “Wow, the DoPS nailed it and are a great governing body of the game.” It seems like “Spin the Wheel” is his most common way of dealing with things. It can be anything from a $50,00 fine to 10 games and no one can ever predict it. The reason is there is no clear clarity on how rules are enforced. This recklessness has cost many players careers and seasons.
Pop quiz! What do George Parros, Jakub Voracek, Pat LaFontaine, Mike Richter, Matthew Barnaby, Petr Svoboda, Nick Kypreos, Eric Lindros, Brett Lindros, Paul Kariya and Scott Stevens all have in common?
Answer? All their careers were cut short by concussions.
Rule 48: Illegal Check to the Head
Rule 48 is, to me, the most flawed rule in the NHL. It implies that you can hit the opponent in the head first if it is unavoidable. It leaves it in the hands of people like Parros and the referees to determine what that means. It should be very simple. You should not be allowed to make head contact whatsoever.
However, this rule leaves head hits up the discretion of others. Arguments routinely given are:
- “What was he supposed to do, not hit him?”
- “Tall players are at a disadvantage when hitting short players”
- “Just remove hitting from the game altogether then.”
- “He was going North-South and you cannot hit a player going North-South without heading his head.”
- “Keep your head up, kid!”
- “He was leading with his head.”
- “He is being punished for being too strong.”
- “If they change the rule, players will purposely skate with their heads down so they can’t be hit!” (My personal favourite).
Other suggestions given are to watch the PWHL, Ultimate Frisbee or horse racing. People like Don Cherry made small fortunes cheering on violence in hockey. It’s been allowed since I started watching the game.
The Morgan Rielly suspension
Recently Morgan Rielly got himself into hot water and a Leafs account posted a series of brutal headshots that got somewhere between 0, $5000 fine or just one game:
I will never be mistaken for a Leafs fan. However, this thread has about six head shots that didn’t receive anything. It’s part of the culture to cross-check guys in the head after the whistle. The “code” seems to state you cannot take a slapshot into a defenceless empty net. However, cross-checking a guy in the face after the whistle is okay.
I think the point of these clips is to suggest that Rielly’s actions are normal and he shouldn’t face more than one game. I strongly disagree. My argument is that if all those headshots were two- to 10-game suspensions, then Rielly wouldn’t even think about making such a play.
I despise headshots. Hate every single one. I love hits, I don’t mind a fight where two guys square up but I hate head-first hits and seeing guys unconscious on the ice. I hate that two of my favourite NHLers in Jakub Voracek and Ondrej Kase are not in the NHL anymore when they both had many more years to give. Filip Chytil may never play again. It’s a problem.
The problem stems from a lot of headshots being allowed to happen. ”He hit the shoulder first” is another great excuse for pure follow-throughs to the head. “He kept his feet on the ice” or “his body was square.” As if this matters in any way if the principal point of contact is the head. People are looking at the wrong thing. They should be looking at where the contact starts. The NHL has been wildly inconsistent and weak on headshots which is why they are still a big part of the game.
Is 2024 different any different?
I’ve noticed a small trend in 2024 that I find real encouraging!
Since January 25, recent suspensions have all involved head contact. Rielly’s suspension is now the latest one, though it is labelled as a cross-checking suspension.
Below are clips of some of the infractions.
These all resulting in suspensions make a whole lot of sense when looking at the severity and the contact made.
A shift in how safety is viewed in the NHL
My joke before writing this article was that this may be the first article in history to praise the DOPS. However, the latest NHL suspensions have all been headshots. If they keep calling the rule, head shots may go down significantly. I would strongly recommend changing the wording from rule 48.1 to eliminate the wording to remove the onus on the player being hit and instead put it all on the player making the hit.
People didn’t like being told to wear seatbelts. To not smoke inside. Players didn’t like being told to wear helmets. Fans didn’t enjoy clutching and grabbing in the Dead Puck Era. Many people were getting bored of each team having a face puncher and those face punchers doing nothing other than face punching. All those things naturally transition out of the league as the game continues to evolve. Let’s hope cheap headshots will be too!
