It was me, a kind of temporary rejection of BOTF. Can't believe Richards got off. Didn't see the Toews one, and won't I've had enough.

There is no doubt that high sticking is way up because of helmuts, but I don't know about the elbow and shoulder shots, and the face plants into the boards/glass. I think frequency is up: because of the equipment (harder); because of ESPN (highlight packages); because players study technique more (and coaching); because players are bigger and moving faster.

By the way, I knocked guys out, two of 'em. One was an exhibition game against my coach's old team .. man did i hear about that. It was a clean hit though, open ice, and he had the puck. Didn't matter, once you embarrass the guy. Same with the other, clean, a collision, guy turned into it.

I got knocked out once, skate gave out, fell into the boards with a guy behind me. Did my shouler at the same time. Just a comment, in none of those three (univ level, '70s) was there any extra-curricular stuff. Also, nothing with the hospital, it was treated no differently than getting stitched up or something.