DEL and KHL both take steps against violent plays

24 Aug 2012 | Dennis Mende

The two European ice hockey leagues decided independently of each other to punish dangerous tackles harder to protect players

When Canadian super star Sidney Crosby couldn't play for various months due to several bad concussions, a discussion emerged not only in North America how to protect players better from this kind of injuries. Now these talks have led the first European leagues take decisions for harsher punishment of several tackles.

The Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) plans to examine all checks against the head in the upcoming 2012-13 season where a penalty has been given by the referees. This happenes independently of the amount of penalty minutes and instead of previous years the club with the hit player does not have to report these incidents anymore. Before such investigation procedures did only happen on behalf of the teams and in the case of match penalties. A new DEL committee was introduced to look through these scenes every Monday. In an attempt to avoid checks against the head a player can be suspended for 16 games and punished with a money fine.

The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) released a statement regarding "reckless and dangerous tackles". KHL Development Vice-President and Disciplinary Committee Chairman Valery Kamensky informed all clubs that "hits to the head, kneeing, kicking, boarding, slashing and striking an opponent between the legs, charging the goalie and being the aggressor in a brawl" will be on extra focus of the Disciplinary commitee. But not only actions during the game but also during warm-up and immediately after end of a match are going to be reviewed. One of the main reasons for taking this step is that serious injuries of players damage the reputation of the KHL and let's the league be less competitive.