It’s good to see the NHL’s general managers coming to a relative consensus on hits to the head during their recent meeting in Ottawa. Apparently, a penalty will be imposed next season to any player who hits an opponent in the head, if it’s the only part of the body targeted. I would hope that means that any player who first delivers a hit to the head, even if his follow through finds other parts of his opponent’s body, would be penalized and face supplemental punishment. Presumably a hit to, say, the shoulder first, which leads to a glancing blow to the head on follow through, would be up for judgment. The important thing is the league is finally targeting head hunters.
 
 Seven years ago, during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, I wrote a note to the NHL wondering if Scott Stevens’ hit on Eric Lindros was excessive. At the time, I had a very young son involved in youth hockey and heard more than one parent express concerns about hits to the head in the sport, and how it was giving them second thoughts about keeping their children involved in hockey. You may remember the hit: Lindros came into the neutral zone with his head down, and Stevens delivered an absolutely thunderous hit to the cranium, leaving Lindros in a crumpled heap on the ice. The response I received understandably praised Scott Stevens, since he is one of the greatest open-ice hitters and defensemen ever to play the game, and absolved him of any blame for the Lindros concussion. That wasn’t my point. Clearly, that hit by Stevens on Lindros was within the boundaries of legality, according to NHL rules. My point was whether the league should take a closer look at trying to remove direct shots to the head from the game. It’s taken some time for the issue to reach a boiling point, but I’m delighted it’s being addressed.
 
 Now don’t get me wrong. I love the booming body check and consider it one of the most exciting parts of the game. But I truly do not believe hitting will be diminished if hits to the head are outlawed. For goodness sake, the NFL penalizes direct head shots, and that certainly has done nothing to take away from the appeal of the bone rattling sport of pro football. What’s being targeted here is the health and well being of the most important commodity in the NHL’s portfolio, its players. It’s become abundantly clear the players don’t have enough respect for each other to refrain from career threatening (and worse) blows to the head, so the league is stepping in, and rightly so. And while many have criticized the latest Chris Pronger elbow to an opponent’s head, this time Ottawa’s Dean McAmmond, it may – ironically enough – have been the final blow for the status quo when it comes to hits of that ilk. If that hit leads to an NHL culture in which shots to the head are drastically eliminated from the game, then it may be time to praise Pronger, however faintly, for helping the league come to its senses.