Knee To Knee Hits On The Rise

The NHL playoffs have delivered some of the most exciting action in recent years. Great goals, amazing passing, and some pretty incredible goaltending.

One negative that has seen an increase this year are the number of knee to knee hits occuring on the ice. The most obvious example would be Alexander Ovechkin's hit on Sergei Gonchar in the second round matchup between the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins. Ovechkin was given a two minute minor for kneeing, while Gonchar was helped off the ice and missed two games, but is probably now playing through the injury.

So far in the Eastern final between Pittsburgh and the Carolina Hurricanes, there have been at least three instances of knee to knee contact. Matt Cooke hit Erik Cole in game one after Cole had taken a shot. No penalty again, but Cooke clearly went out of his way to make sure he caught part of Cole. In game two, Denis Seidenberg and Craig Adams had a collision at center ice. Again, no penalty. Adams appeared to try and avoid the body check and Seidenberg was determined to get a piece of Adams. And later in that game, Walker took a questionable run at Evgeni Malkin, hitting him low.

Since the lockout, the NHL has cracked down hard on stick infractions, especially through the neutral zone in an effort to speed up the game by reducing the amount of interference occuring during games. Because of this effort, players are more often trying their hardest to try and hit players coming with speed. The unfortunate result (in most cases, it's not the intention to injure) is that more knee to knee hits have occured.

Unfortunately, the NHL's response to these types of hits has been mixed, to the point that many feel that there is preferential treatment depending on who hit whom. The league needs to be consistent and concrete in handing out punishment for these types of hits, even if it's the playoffs, and one of the premeire players gets suspended. Otherwise, it's a matter of time before someone's career is ended by one of these hits.