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Posted at 7:21 p.m., Monday, June 4, 2007

NHL GMs look to cut down on blows to head

By Tim Panaccio
The Philadelphia Inquirer

OTTAWA, Ontario — NHL general managers took the first step today toward creating rules changes that will attempt to curb the frequency of hits to the head in games.

Anaheim's Chris Pronger was suspended for tonight's Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals after he leveled Ottawa's Dean McAmmond with a forearm to the head in Game 3.

The topic of blows to the head dominated a six-hour meeting of GMs. The agenda also included discussion about enlarging the nets.

"It was a very good debate in there," Tampa Bay's Jay Feaster said. "The league is going to try to put something together on this and bring it back to us based on our input in July."

The GMs agreed that the league's intent is to eliminate deliberate head blows that are intended to injure.

"We had a pretty good discussion," Washington's George McPhee said. "There seems to be an area where we can look at where a player is vulnerable and where there is contact with just the head only. We're going to examine that.

"I don't know how often it will be called, but there are situations where the hit is late, the guy is vulnerable, and if you are hitting the guy's head only, we have to take that out of the game. I don't think it will be called often, but called enough that the players get the message."

Anaheim GM Brian Burke said he wanted to ensure that contact remains in the game.

"We have to find a balance for taking shots to the head out . . . and where it's a reaction hit," he said. If "it happens to be a size mismatch and a guy gets a shoulder in the chops, we can't take that hit out. What distinguishes North American hockey is the amount of body contact, and we can't ever change that."

The league presented a number of video clips to illustrate how blows to the head often appear worse in slow motion. Often, an official has little time to react to determine intent.

"A lot of it is going to go to intent," Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said. "There are certain times in games where players are vulnerable. I don't know if players really have in