Re: Kostopoulos J

Campbell to: Mike Murphy

11/10/2008 11 :21 AM

Cc: Gary Bettman

If I could add to Murph's comments on "basics in hockey" I would add that the dynamics have changed
dramatically ... size, speed, equipment and now you can't slow a player down with a hook or a grab. Hitting
is one of our "main ingredients" (or know how to avoid a hit... Lafleur, Bossy, Yzerman, Sakic .. small guys
but players with good talent and who had the puck more often than most) so if we were to remove
hitting .... we would somewhat with a rule like this, we had better be ready for the alternatives and we don't
know what they would be.
Mike Murphy/TOR/NHL
Mike Murphy/TOR/NHL

11/10/200810:36AM

To Gary Bettman/NYC/NHL@NHL, "Colin Campbell"

cc
Subject Re: KostopoulosJ

The game has always allowed hitting .....fair, clean hitting ..... no elbows, no charges, not violently against
the boards
there has always been a responsibility for the puck carrier to play the game and handle the
puck with his head up we were all told at a young age "Keep your head up"
knowing full well if we
had our head down we were vulnerable to a hard and damaging hit. ..... head checking in the OHL (I don't
think the west or Quebec has head checking) ... will exonerate the puck carrier from his
responsibility
with that you have a different type of game
ifwe take checking out of our game (many
checks are to the head area because of the position of the puck carrier, bent over, and the size of the
players, small vs large) we risk having a totally different game then we have now ..... less physical, less
combative etc ... one we probably won't like .....
Gary Bettman
-----Original Message----From: Gary Bettman
Sent: 11/10/2008 08:47 AM EST
To: Mike Murphy; Colin Campbell
Subject: Kostopoulos
")
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I would like to know the results of the h~ri~g b'efore..il\goes pu~li~. l'mi in toronto t~day. Also, in 2
se~tenc~s, why doesn't the chi head cheo~n~ rule~ork?11 now~t~oesn't, but I'd like to hear your
1
articulation.
~
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Sent from my Blackberry
.__
............!
Gary B Bettman

L1

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