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NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: BRUINS v CANUCKSJune 8, 2011Brendan ShanahanBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Four THE MODERATOR: Questions. BRENDAN SHANAHAN: In general terms, what the group decided was to expand on the illegal hits to the head. But I think there's still steps to go there. We're going to take the general manager's recommendation to the Competition Committee. Q. What is the recommendation? BRENDAN SHANAHAN: Well, I don't think it's appropriate to discuss those details until we get with the NHLPA, make sure they're comfortable with it. I guess, generally speaking, it's taking Rule 48 and expanding it in a fashion that we think will protect players, specifically the illegal checks to the head. Q. Are we talking about targets to the head? BRENDAN SHANAHAN: It's not just a blanket rule where any contact to the head is illegal. It's not quite that far. At the same time, it's more than what we have right now. Q. How would you characterize the conversation that you had among you, the varying opinions? How was the process? BRENDAN SHANAHAN: The four of us have been working on this since March. This isn't a reflection of anything that's happened recently. It's more a body of work that's occurred for several months now. I think that the general feeling among the GMs is that we want to make the game safer and at the same time we want to maintain the physicality in the game of hockey. It's a delicate balance. We want to make sure of the safety of the players playing is foremost. Q. If your recommendations go, is a hit still legal like that next year? BRENDAN SHANAHAN: My feeling is that the hit by Rome was interference, and it would still remain interference. I don't think that in any way, whether it was east, west, north or south, that it was a targeted shot to the head. I think it was an interference penalty. Really, the call that Mike Murphy made, I think that would have been a suspension. Q. (No microphone.) BRENDAN SHANAHAN: There's a subtle change when you describe a defenseless player as opposed to a vulnerable player. I think when you talk about a defenseless player, that's where the interference rule comes. I think as a player, there's a certain amount of time after you pass the puck that you should have a sense that you may be hit. There's an amount of time that's elapsed where you feel you shouldn't. I guess the determination was made on the interference call that Horton was defenseless on that play. Q. Are you taking out the word 'blindside'? BRENDAN SHANAHAN: Well, I don't want to get specific, like I said. It is expanding the current rule as it stands right now. Q. In the months that you've been studying this issue, can you talk about why you felt the need to broaden it? BRENDAN SHANAHAN: I think last year was a very good first step. I always go back to something that Terry said, that good rules evolve. I think last year putting in this rule was a good first step in the NHL, but we felt we could do more, go a little further, and we'll see if the NHLPA and the Competition Committee support that. We think they will. Q. There were five or six hits where 48 was invoked. Did you examine the way it was called this year? Were you happy with the way it was implemented? Do you think there will be a lot more calls under 48 if the changes were to happen? BRENDAN SHANAHAN: I was happy with the way it was called this year. You never know. Players, they want to know what they can and cannot do and adapt. We'll have to look at it and adapt and make changes. Q. Why don't you want a blanket rule? BRENDAN SHANAHAN: The amount of work that our group did, the amount of video we studied, we just felt there were too many clean, hard hits that did have incidental contact with the head. We just didn't think it was fair. We wanted to have body-checking in hockey. There is going to be some incidental contact to the head. I just think that would have been something that, like I said, after we studied all the video, we didn't think a blanket rule fit for the NHL. Q. (Question regarding grading the head shots.) BRENDAN SHANAHAN: My number might be different from yours. I can't put a number on it. Q. (No microphone.) BRENDAN SHANAHAN: I think we all have to remember we're all trying to get to the same place and it's not an easy job to do. I think that hockey fans, hockey purists, hockey players, owners, managers, coaches, we have to remember in the end we're trying to get to the same place. We can fight each other about how we get there. Like I said, last year was a good first step. Once we get to the Competition Committee and explain our thought process to them, I think this will be a good next step. Q. Did you have any discussion about suspensions, that type of thing, in this meeting? BRENDAN SHANAHAN: No. Q. Does the Rome suspension set any precedent for you or do you start with a clean slate when you get started next year? BRENDAN SHANAHAN: I don't want to attach my role next year to today's news. Q. Did you consider at all when you went into this process, you heard a lot of talk of head hits, was an outright ban something you were thinking going in? BRENDAN SHANAHAN: Like I said, I don't necessarily know what you mean by that. Like any contact to the head, incidental contact to the head, bumping into somebody? Is that what you're talking about? Q. Yes. BRENDAN SHANAHAN: Yeah. Like I said, we studied a lot of video of current hits, historical hits, hits this year, hits last year, and we felt that for the game of hockey, with the proper balance of improving the safety aspect, but also maintaining a physical element to our game, that this was the proper next step. With all respect for the Competition Committee and the process that has to go forward, we would like to wait till we speak to them before we start revealing exactly the details. Once we get the input from them, it could be tweaked some more. Q. To boil it down, is this all basically that was discussed, but now you formalized it? Is this basically the same sort of format you talked about at the last general manager's meeting or have you tweaked it since then? BRENDAN SHANAHAN: You'll have to remind me what we talked about at the last meeting. Q. We're trying to figure out, is there more to it than what we reported before, what you were talking about? BRENDAN SHANAHAN: What did you report before? I don't know. I'm sorry. I don't know specifically. Q. You talked about players being in vulnerable positions, defenseless. We talked about going to the Blue Ribbon Panel and boiling it down. Have you gone beyond what you talked about before or is it essentially what you talked about at the previous meeting? BRENDAN SHANAHAN: I think we really focused on the word 'defenseless.' I think it gets confusing, and I think the word 'vulnerable' can get cloudy. I think 'defenseless' speaks accurately to the kind of player that he's reasonably unsuspecting or he's reasonably vulnerable, because there is a part of the game, a physical aspect of the game, where the player is playing with his head down, you can check him legally. We wanted to focus on what we thought were the more dangerous hits, the more dangerous hits to players that we thought were defenseless, had no reasonable chance or expectation whatsoever to protect themselves. Q. That would include north/south hits or not? BRENDAN SHANAHAN: We expanded what we'd done in the past. But I think the specifics of what we'd done, out of respect for the process we have to go through, I think we're going to wait till we talk to the players and the Competition Committee and the union. If they like what we've proposed, we're going to take it to the Board of Governors. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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