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Now that the NHL will have a rule banning blindside hits to the head next season, it does not mean the league can cue up Sam Cooke's A Change Is Gonna Come as its new theme song.

The league still has to educate the players and referees about the new standard once the rule proposal from the NHL's 30 general managers is examined and possibly refined by the competition committee and then approved by the board of governors.

But the league can say it has finally taken a step toward reducing the growing number of concussions that are almost always the result of such high-speed hits. Starting next season, no player will be allowed to come from a blindside and lower the boom on a vulnerable player's head. The rule concerns all hits to the head, not just shoulder hits.

Offenders will be subject to either a minor or major penalty at the discretion of the referees. But in either case, the hit will be automatically reviewed by the league and a suspension could follow. What will be decided between now and when the proposal goes to the competition committee in June is whether offenders can also receive an automatic game misconduct.

"Now there's something punishable and players want to know that, what they can and cannot do," said Brendan Shanahan, a former player who is now the NHL's vice-president of hockey and business development. "I think it's a great first step, but we have time to continue to have it evolve."

Shanahan said a push came from the players to eliminate these types of hits, but the league now has to educate its 700 players before next season about what kind of hits will no longer be legal.

"You can't flick on a switch," Shanahan said of how fast a change will come. "[There is]a lot of work, video and study and it'll continue until being implemented next season.

"I think today was a great first step and we'll have input from the competition committee. Today is the framework for something that could be very successful."

Just as important in the eyes of the GMs, league executives, coaches and players, is the belief that a step was made without sacrificing hitting in the North American version of hockey.

"You can still hit a guy, you just can't target his head," said Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke, a former hardliner who came to believe a rule was necessary. "Hitting in our game, it's part of the fabric of our game, it's what's distinctive about hockey in North America. Anywhere else on the planet you go, there's not as much hitting as there is in our game.

"We want to keep that. But we want to take out a dangerous hit where a guy targets a guy's head. He can still reef the guy, he just can't target his head."

Matt Cooke's hit on Boston Bruins centre Marc Savard last Sunday will not be legal when the new rule is introduced next season. Savard suffered a concussion when the Pittsburgh Penguin used his upper arm and shoulder to hit him on the head from the blindside.

Under current rules, the hit is considered legal and Cooke was not penalized. He also escaped a suspension from the NHL.

According to Colin Campbell, the NHL's senior vice-president and director of hockey operations, the hit last fall by Philadelphia Flyers centre Mike Richards on Florida Panthers forward David Booth, which left Booth with a severe concussion, was the difference-maker with many GMs.

"Basically, we are taking a completely legal hit with the shoulder and saying from a certain aspect in the future that it is going to be an illegal hit if delivered to the head," Campbell said. "Part two of that is we are shifting, which is probably a huge statement in the game now, we are shifting some of the responsibility from the player getting hit to the player delivering the hit now, which was never a part of our game.

"Since you grew up, you always had to have your head up. You'd get crap from your dad if you got hit while watching your pass. But now there is some responsibility on the guy delivering the hit. When a player is in a certain position and you are coming from a certain angle, you have a responsibility that you have to play the body, not the head."

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