Watching Max Pacioretty laying motionless on the ice, and leaving on a stretcher is hard for any hockey fan to watch, regardless what team your cheering for. This all made harder by the fact that his parents were in attendance to witness the devastating hit received by Zdeno Chara.

Pacioretty has a severe concussion along with a fractured vertebrae suffered when his head hit the partition in the boards and struck the left side of his head. It begs to question what part of Mike Murphy's head was hit when he let Chara get off Scott free.

There are many pundits who say that Chara was doing his job and finishing his check, and really Chara is the only person who knows that. The fact of the matter is there needs to be established rules that state when a player is injured to the head in any way, regardless of intent, a minimum suspension is given.

Hockey's image is taking a beating on a daily basis and needs more action from it's governing bodies. The message sent here is that the NHL will tolerate hits of this kind. It is a laughable response from a league that takes itself so seriously. Hockeys best and brightest players are being injured in plays like this every day.

Hockey is a physical game and it should stay that way, however a player knows where he is on the ice and should be responsible for his actions. A player accidentally tripping another player is still called for tripping. Therefore a player hitting another player to the head should do the time as well.

There are those who argue that Zdeno Chara did his time, a 5 minute major and a game misconduct, but the message was weak when this could have been an opportunity to make a safer game for all players and show the league doesn't take this lightly.

Jeff McTiernan

Hockey Gods