And how many guys have Chara or Pronger hospitalized with "clean" open ice hits like Stevens? I haven't seen Chara do it. Not sure about Pronger, but I'm sure he's nowhere near Stevens body count. No one is. Besides, Stevens was only 6-2. Lindros was bigger and he still got to his head and Francis was taller and he caught him in the chin along the boards, not even on a rush. Shane Willis he knocked out with 10 seconds left in a game that wasn't close. To me Stevens was head-hunter, regardless of the rule.
Lindros was never able to get over himself from his junior years, when he could skate with his head down and people who tried to check him just bounced off his chest, and the biggest reason he was put out so long from the Stevens hit was because he had still not recovered from the previous concussions.
Neither of them have hospitalized anyone because neither of them have the raw power of Scott Stevens when it came to open ice hits. Stevens hits decimated those stupid enough to put their heads down and concentrate on keeping the puck on their stick, much like many other open ice hits in History, but all of them were clean clean clean. Few had the instincts or mobility combined with freak of nature upper body strength Stevens had, and fewer still have the ability to read the play and know when they can get away with an open ice hit without getting burned if they miss. Stevens was perfect at both, and thus, opposing forwards were on record for saying "I always make a mental note of when he is on the ice. It makes crossing the Devils blueline and playing in their zone a whole different ballgame"
The minute you take those factors out of the game of Hockey, we all lose.
It always has been and always will be fine to punish people with open ice hits. The alternative is unthinkable. The moment you ban open ice hits to the head, every single player alters their stride and skates in a manner which leaves their head down, causing penalties every time they get hit, thus, making people decide not to throw hits. Eventually, hitting is a thing of the past.
The exact same thing happened when they created the hitting from behind penalty. Now every player who goes along the boards intentionally turns their back and numbers to whoever is rushing at them so that they are no longer allowed to be hit, limiting the opposing players actions to tying them up along the boards or risking a penalty.
The vast majority of greats who were questioned about Scott's open ice hits called them clean. From Larry Robinson to Scotty Bowman.
The NHL(And various Hockey journalists) did several pieces on how clean and vicious Scott Stevens open ice hits were, and how they made him the player he was. Few are those who question the veracity of clean open ice hits in the game of Hockey.
I accept that we have differing opinions on the matter, but you have to realize you are in a very small minority if you think clean open ice hits need to go and that players who throw them are dirty.
