This season, there has been much debate within the NHL regarding the safety of goalies. Comparable to the NFL, the goalie like the quarterback is the most important player on the ice. Essentially, your season depends not necessarily on who scores the most points on your team, but rather which goalie plays hard enough night in and night out, that it allows your team the best opportunity to win the Stanley Cup. Earlier this season, Boston Bruins forward Milan Lucic body checked Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller, giving the latter a concussion. As a result, Miller and his team have struggled, as he is still experiencing signs of the concussion. Thus leaving the question, is it time that the NHL adopted rules to protect goalies?

As we noted above, the goalie position in the NHL is just as important as the quarterback position in the NFL. While the quarterback is responsible for calling everything on offense, and dictating who does what, the goalie is responsible for stopping the puck and on many nights making the key saves which can keep their team in a game. When an opposing teams player strikes a goalie, the automatic response, in our opinion should be not only for a penalty to be administered similar to roughing the quarterback, but a fight to breakout. The goalie may have more equipment on then the average skater, but 90 percent of goalies are much skinnier then the bruising players crashing into them.

In other words, regardless of the equipment, the goalie needs to be protected, as they are the most important assets on your team. With this in mind, the NHL needs to make stiffer punishments for players that attack goalies, because it can affect the outcome of the game. If the goalie isn’t protected, then teams such as the Boston Bruins, will always have their sports betting lines skewed because they can injure who ever they please.