The Reeves hit is a dumb comparison because of the from the side nature of the hit that meant Reeves picked Nurses head.
Conversely, on this hit, the direction of contact was basically through center of mass.
The issue here is the upwards launch of the hitter. He crouches low before the hit and then explodes upwards just before the hit.
However, the NHL has repeatedly taken the viewpoint that as long as your skates are still touching the ice at the moment of contact, even if only by a hair, then it doesn’t count as jumping into a hit.
I think that’s a ridiculous approach as it’s fairly easy for a player to lean *into* a hit instead of jumping upwards, and launching upwards dramatically increases the chance of a head injury, but that’s what the NHL has said.
To be clear, I understand that players leaning into a hit won’t eliminate all head contact, and it’s still possible that someone in a position like Knies could take a big hit that has a lot of head contact. My point is that the NHL should be looking to eliminate actions that unnecessarily increase head contact, which is what happened here.