Hit of the year: Why Ryan Reaves on Filip Hronek was mean but clean

Reaves, 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds on his lightest day, blasted through Hronek in arguably the heaviest hit of the 2022-23 NHL season.

“Honestly, he locked eyes with me. Like, I saw him look at me and then he just kind of turned his head and held on to the puck. …” he told The Athletic’s Michael Russo. “I hope he’s OK, but you’ve gotta know when I’m on ice and definitely don’t skate at me like that.”

Hronek’s body hit the ice like a pedestrian hit by a car. It was extremely ugly to watch. But dirty? No. Not even Detroit Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde felt so.

“I think Filip would want his play back – exposing himself,” he told The Athletic’s Joe Smith. “I talked to him quick there. He thought there was a penalty on the play. He was waiting for the goalie to come out…I know Reaves was not malicious.”

The idea that Reaves, who has been suspended three times and fined three times in his NHL career, won’t face supplemental discipline will probably be tough to stomach for the many Red Wings fans who were up in arms after the hit Wednesday night. But they’ll have to get used to it. There won’t be any call to Reaves from the Department of Player Safety.

That’s because the hit did not violate Rule 48.1, illegal check to the head, which reads as follows:

“A hit resulting in contact with an opponent’s head where the head was the main point of contact and such contact to the head was avoidable is not permitted.”

The definition in the rulebook reads longer, but we can stop reading right there in this particular case. Hronek’s head was not the main point of contact. His chest was. 

Watch again, the angle shown at 0:40 of this clip, and keep an eye on Reaves’ followthrough, pushing the brunt of his force through the Winged Wheel logo on Hronek’s chest.

It’s important to note here: Reaves did hit Hronek in the head. There was some incidental contact as a result of the hit to the chest. But, unfortunately, that amount of head contact on a heavy bodycheck is allowed.

If you hate the Reaves hit, then, your issue is not with the play. Your issue is with the rulebook.

This is not the first time I’ve gone into detail on the rulebook history for headshots, nor will it be the last, but it’s relevant to bring it up again. Remember the hit Matt Cooke threw on Marc Savard in 2010, which essentially ended Savard’s career? It was horrible but, at the time, it wasn’t illegal. The rulebook didn’t have any specific language prohibiting headshots. Later, the Rule 48.1 amendment changed that, and subsequent headshots like Cooke’s were no longer allowed.

So in the case of what we saw from Reaves last night: if we want that type of play suspended, the rulebook must be amended again to prohibit all forms of head contact, including incidental, as Hall of Famer Ken Dryden has called for the league to do. It’s a great idea and would drastically reduce the number of head injuries we see in games.

But right now? The DOPS’ hands are tied. They are bound by the rulebook, which has been collectively bargained by the league and the NHL Players’ Association. You cannot suspend a player for an infraction that does not currently exist.

When you’re as big and thick as Reaves, you can deliver a textbook perfect hit, which he did last night, and you’ll still be likely to catch your opponent’s head as part of the collision.

We don’t have to like it. I don’t, for the record. But we do have to accept it – until or unless Rule 48.1 is amended again.