One day after Pittsburgh's Matt Cooke knocked Boston's Marc Savard out for the season with a vicious, but legal, hit to the head on March 7, the NHL's general managers meetings began in Boca Raton, Fla.
A mere 18 days later, the league enacted a new rule that prohibits such hits. The rule defines an illegal hit as "a lateral, back-pressure or blind-side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or the principal point of contact."
In rapid succession, the GM's recommended the new rule at their meetings, the board of governors unanimously approved it Tuesday, the players' union representatives on the competition committee agreed to it Wednesday and the executive board of the players' union voted to accept it as a temporary rule Thursday. The new rule went into affect immediately, with 11 games that night.
Under the rule, in effect through the playoffs, the league's Hockey Operations Department can review such hits for supplementary discipline, such as suspension.
"We believe this is the right thing to do for the game and for the safety of our players," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. "The elimination of these types of hits should significantly reduce the number of injuries, including concussions, without adversely affecting the level of physicality in the game."
The league's competition committee will meet during the offseason to create a permanent rule that will include an on-ice penalty.
"It's a good rule for the players and the league," Thrashers defenseman Pavel Kubina said. "We should have had this rule a long time go. With any elbows or any hits to the head, there should be a suspension."
The league issued a seven-minute video to instruct the differences between a legal and an illegal hit under the new rule. One of the legal hits on the video was delivered by Thrashers forward Jim Slater in a game against Toronto.
"It's good," Slater said of the rule. "Now no one has a question about it. We know it's being looked at very seriously. Before anyone else gets injured, hopefully this can limit those opportunities for that. When it has such a major impact on the game, and people's lives after the game, you have to make a rule. I'm glad they did it now and didn't wait until the end [of the season]."
The Flyers' Mike Richards delivered a blow to the Panthers' David Booth earlier this season that would now be deemed illegal under the new rules. Booth missed 45 games earlier this season with Richards drove his shoulder into his head causing a concussion. Booth now is likely out for the season after he suffered a second concussion after he was hit in the jaw Thursday.
New addition to Kovalchuk family
Ilya Kovalcuk's wife, Nicole, delivered the couple's third child last Sunday. The former Thrashers captain, traded in February to the Devils, flew to Florida where the boy was born via Caesarean section.
The child, Artum, is Kovalchuk's second boy.
Kovalchuk left New Jersey on Sunday and arrived in Florida about 12:30 p.m., he told The Star Ledger newspaper in New Jersey. After immediately going to the hospital, the child was born at 6:41 p.m. He left his wife in the hospital and in the care of his mother and was back in New Jersey around midnight and at Devils' practice Monday.
The couple also have a 4-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son.
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