Because, really, what purpose do they serve. If the object of the game is to see who can score more goals, why do you need to take out an opponent to do that. The real talent of players will shine though when they are left to weave, dodge and stick handle their way down the ice free of blows resulting in a concussion or God forbid a life changing injury. Further more parents can then actually enjoy the game with out the worry of what might happen to their player or any of them for that matter. It is a youth sport...nobody should walk on the ice not knowing if they will walk off. There should be strict rules in place that totally eliminate anything that can result in a life changing injury especially paralysis. We need to protect our kids, If professionals want to be paid millions of dollars to risk it...it is their choice, it is not a HS kids choice to not be able to walk again because he played in a youth hockey tournament and got illegally checked from behind. Are you kidding me 10 minutes...how about you are done for tonights game and if you do it again your done for the season or for good!

Body checking is a part of hockey. Those who want to remove it are either overly-concerned parents or have never played the game. During youth hockey and highschool I was one of the smallest players on our team, but I learned to safely receive and give body checks as a means to remove an opponent from the puck. Players will tell you that checking is an essential aspect of the game, and without it, hockey would be slower and less enjoyable. Its a tough sport, and if you can't handle it, there are plenty of non-contact sports available. What happened to Jablonski was tragic and I agree there should be more severe penalties for checking from behind and boarding, but there is no reason to remove checking entirely. A clean check does not endanger anyone, and that should be the focus, enforcing clean checks.

If it happened to Jack it can happen to anyone. It isn't the fact he wasn't careful it was the fact that the one checking wasn't careful an put Jack's life in jeopardy. Now if that can happen what makes you think it cant happen once more.

Checking has been a part of the game forever. Freak accidents are going to happen and that's just what this is. When a player gets beaned in baseball and gets a concussion or worse, do you remove pitching from the game? Do you remove tackling from football? What happened to that boy was a terrible accident, but it is not a regular occurence.

Hockey at any level is a contact sport just like football is. That physical contact is part of the allure of the game for both players and spectators. Removing checking from the game would be a huge overreaction to an isolated incident and a freak accident. I find it absurd that this conversation is even being had. When you sign up to play hockey (or football) you are signing up to play a potentially violent and hard-hitting game. Anyone who says that there is no value of checking in hockey has obviously not played the game. It is a very useful defensive tool. Taking checking out of hockey would be on the same level as taking tackling out of the game of football. At that point we might as well call it boys figure skating.

Checking should be allowed in hockey. It is an integral, instrumental and fundamental part of the game. As in lacross, when used strategically and delivered properly, the check can be a physically defensive tactic that can disrupt the offensive advancement of the opponent, and even transition teams from defense to offense in an instant. Decades of expert coaches know how to use sound checking during the course of a game to change the flow of the game. Dangerous and illegal forms of body-checking (cross-checking, checking from behind, boarding, roughing, elbowing, spearing, etc.) can be dramatically reduced in players through a stonger curriculum of training, especially by coaches, and more forceful sanctions imposed by league officials and referees, especially when a team is engaged in a repeated pattern of inordinate checking or body contact penalties within a game or across games. The latter would also reflect a coaching and team culture that isn't health and respectful of the integrity of the game. Referees need far better training to effectively take control of the game, too.
Will this eliminate injury...probably not. Can it reduce injury...probably. Research and data gathering should be done on injuries in hockey due to checking. But to remove the fundamental element of body-checking from hockey, would be like removing blocking and tackling from football. This is a deeply tragic and rare event in comparison to the 100,0000s of delivered checks nightly around the world.

Maybe we should teach the kids how to properly check and receive checks at a younger age rather then ban checking until they are halfway through their hockey career.

I dont think its a problem of the coaches not teaching proper checking, I think its the parents teaches the kids to always win. Let the coaches coach parents stay out of it!!

If you remove checking from hockey you might as well call it girls figure skating! Checking from behind is a bad thing but sometimes the person that gets checked from behind is facing the person doing the checking but turns at the last second and what do you do then? Personal view would be to have training in checking during practice. I know our High School team rarely practices proper checking and the do's and don'ts of checking. We checked in squirts when I was playing and to be honest we knew how to check by the time we where in Pee Wees. Now they are just learning how to check in Pee Wees and still haven't learned how to do it by High School! Proper training in all aspects of any sport should be manditory and practiced daily. If we take checking out of hockey then what would be next? No fouls in basketball or no tackling in football? Injuries have been happening in all sports for quite some time now. Why would things change now. Change is not always a good thing! Look at how well change has helped us in the last 3 years if you know what I mean!

Checking is compensation for lack of technique and aptitude. Rather than push other players (there enough bullying in the world), why not improve your abilities. The desire to win is resulting in more aggression and is escalating in hockey (and even people trying to "push" you along on the highway). These kids need to be taught empathy and the Golden Rule. If you hit someone from behind, you are defenseless. I don't imagine most players are taught about natural cause and effect either by their parents, nor coaches. The ego and competition takes over, and not only are people injured, but the perpetrators have to live with that for the rest of their lives. Is pushing someone to win points or a game, really worth it? Never. Everybody needs to wake up and change their priorities. For instance, when I was taught to drive as a kid, the fear of God was put into me, and every possible bad outcome, including harming others and having to pay for it for the rest of your life. I never let my kids play highly aggressive and competitive games, as they have to use their bodies for the rest of their lives. Too many athletes have problems later in life, and these kinds of extreme situations are egregious. They can use their energies for bettering themselves and the world, instead. See how fast they can serve food in the soup kitchens, or filling bags for starving children. Adults are as faulted as the kids. I used to think it was kid's peers - then I met the parents. Ugh!

Dave, you assume a lot. I played contact sports. That is why I gave my kids other options. With two children more than 20 years apart in age, I have seen how sports have changed over the decades. It is tragic, and you need to self-examine, vs. assuming things about people that you don't know. Playing offensive strategy (double entendre) for a weak defense, doesn't work. Thou dost protest too much.

A pitcher delivers the ball, it cracks off the bat and hits a shortstop in the wrist, breaking his hand and causing him chronic pain for the rest of his life. A boy blows out his ACL and walks with a slight limp in his 50s because it didn't heal correctly. These are all true scenarios. Checking, like tackling in either soccer or football, is a dangerous but necessary part of the sport. Coaching is essential, from Pee Wee on up, to teach kids how to deliver and how to receive a check in the corner. Look, it's terrible, but it's a freak thing. Just like the special teams player from the Buffalo Bills or the lineman from the Lions, violent collision happens in sport. I've suffered a concussion (soccer) and blown out an ankle twice. Injury is part of putting your body through rigorous activity such as hockey. It's just unfortunate that this freak accident (it was, obviously, an accident as this Wayzata player will now live with that guilt for the rest of his life) will change a young boy's life.

Nick and Dave, unfortunately, seem to have symptoms of sociopathy. After they die, and their brains are autopsied, we will understand why they are "the way they are." So sad - the risk for their mental state could have been mitigated; but, they chose to have their heads traumatized.

Youth sports safety is like a 3 legged stool supported by 1. rigorous rules and officiating, 2. coaches that teach technique & sportsmanship and defend the well being of youth players above all else, and 3 parents who insist on the first two and are willing and able to remove their children immediately from play if the coaches and officials are not doing their jobs. Deliberately hurting other players is combat not sports. Youth sports should not be combat. Youth players should not be sacrificed for some adults visions of manhood. They are not gladiators hired impressed to satisfy the blood lust of the crowd. Imagine how the game would change if in the absence of good officiating or responsible coaching parents stopped a game by ordering their players off the ice. I bet someone would pay attention. It would only take stopping one game where the crowd is out of control, refs not calling foul play or coaches not doing their jobs for youth sports to change.
My children and I were involved with sports. I was ready to remove them from play if the situation became dangerous. That is a parent's responsibility.