Former N.H.L. Ref Calls for Outlawing of Hits to the Head

October 19, 2010, 10:23 pm


Former N.H.L. Ref Calls for Outlawing of Hits to the Head

By JEFF Z. KLEIN

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Kerry Fraser retired at the end of last season after 30 years and 1,904 regular-season and 260 playoff games as an N.H.L. referee, more than any other official, and through all of that he was contractually obligated to make no public statements about the game.


He is quiet no longer, as he demonstrated when he addressed the Mayo Clinic conference on hockey concussions here late Tuesday afternoon.

“The N.H.L. must outlaw head hits,” Fraser said, not just blind-side hits to the head and deliberate head shots, which became illegal this season. He was also sharply critical of what he saw as the league’s previous ambivalence on such checks, which he said fostered “a culture that allows head hits.”


He cited as evidence two game-misconduct calls for head shots he made late in his career that were rescinded by league supervisors.


“The N.H.L. has wisely decided — a little too long in coming — to take care of head hits,” Fraser said, referring to the rule mandating a major and game misconduct for blindside checks to the head and checks that target the head. But he also said the standard did not go far enough.

Fraser showed the league’s standard-of-enforcement video that illustrates what is illegal and what is legal, drawing attention to this hit by Philadelphia’s Chris Pronger on the Rangers’ Jody Shelley:


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