COSMOMANN YOU NEED TO FIND ANOTHER SPORT CAUSE YOU DONT KNOW HOCKEY

It's always tragic when a player is injured, especially when it's a head injury. That being said, I think that coaches at the Junior and Collegiate levels need to put more focus on teaching young players correct positioning. Before I played goal I played left wing and was taught that you don't skate with your head down. If you can't use quick glances while keeping your head "on a swivel" then you can't carry the puck. You have to protect yourself in the corners and anytime the puck is in your vacinity. Sacrificing your body is for blocking shots not firing a puck around the end boards while a larger opponent is bearing down on you. You have to brace yourself against the boards first, then move the puck even if it's only with a skate. This is why defensemen are taught to work as a tandem, his partner is responsible for support. I'm not a fan of the big, slow-skating, hulk players who's claim to their ice time is the notion that they're role players either though. The simple fact is that you don't have to be a huge guy to be a grinder/checker. I'd take Kris Draper over Derek Boogard any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

If this type of check, which happens many times each game, is removed from hockey because players fear the consequences then the game will not be same game. This is a game played at a high level by skilled and strong athletes preparing to play pro. No one is forced to play Major Junior at 15 or any age but if you want to play at this level it comes with risks. Those risks don't become less as you progress from Junior either. This is just public relations b.s. by the OHL. They suspend a kid who won't be missed by his team so they can appear to be tough on head shots. In 3 tenths of a second, Fanelli turned his head. The helmet came off before his head hit the steel support post. There was no follow through by Liambas. His momentum carried him into the glass beyond Fanelli's head. It is never a good idea to blame the victim but it is just as wrong to punish someone for a bad result of what should have been a routine collision. This decision wasn't about justice, it was about appeasing public sympathy.

This is a terrible call on your part Mr. Branch, Im not all about players or anyone else that matter getting hurt but I was at that game and the poor player Fanelli put himself in that position more then once in that game alone, if you watch the video you will see him 2 feet from the boards when he got hit by a shoulder to shoulder check, then his head hit the boards in which caused all the damage, so it make you ask your self "was his helmet done up properly?" I dont think it was as it came off like a bottle top. We need to get back to the basic of what we was tough in hockey when we were kids, and that is how to play the game and the ability to take a hit and take it safely, more and more kids are getting injured these days not but player like Liambas, but by the fact that they one skate with there head down meaning they dont have the skill to skate with the puck, and two being too far away from the boards. I dont want kids to get hurt but you have found more of the checking from behind then back in the day because everyone knows now they will get the penalty called against them. As for you cosmoman I think you need to stick to watching football, cause for a little news flash Liambas missed pretty much of the hole year last year cause of surgery, and the reason for having the over age year is so that NHL and AHL teams have a place to put there future talent to a league in which will help them grow for another year and have ice time to do this in staid on putting them on a GTD list like a lot more players are. why 21 against 16, well why 30 against 18??? age dosnet matter if you think you are able and have the skill to play in the CHL then it dosent matter age, thats why it dosent matter what age you are in University leagues, and also there are player in the junior golf league that are over 30 but thanks for coming out,

COSMO: MY SUGGESTION TO YOU IS THAT YOU SHOULD PROBABLY stick with TIDDLY WINKS, or BADMITTON, or LAWN JARTS or something else less brutal. DAVID BRANCH should be ashamed at himself for his continuation to pandering to the media misfits who have never played the game, and are always calling for the sport to be changed and watered down even further with rediculous rules that only serve to cheapen the game on the North American stage. 1st, he implemented the stupid penalty for OHL league players to be suspended for removing their hats prior to a fight, instead of giving concern to the fighters who may be lost to their teams for a period of time due to punching the helmut of their opposing fighter. Now he wants to look like a politician again, by blowing this latest incident out of proportion, as he dealt out a penalty that did not match the situation. Now I only saw the video tape of the hit a couple of times, but it sure seemd to me that the KITCHENER RANGER player turned in towards the boards as he might have known that he was about to be hit. And in my estimation, that hit was a hellava lot more acceptable than the SCOTT STEVENS blind sided crap that he used to get away with when he played !!!