Why isn't this considered assaultYou're allowed to punch people in the back of the head and skate away like nothing happened in this league? What am I watching here?
InterestingThere actually have been hockey players prosecuted for criminal assault. But it has to be conduct outside the normal course of what traditionally happens (even outside the rules) within that sport. You are considered to have consented to a certain degree of illicit conduct, to be punished under the rules of that sport only. Here's a basic article:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports...-t-face-criminal-charges-court-fights-n922866
The Bertuzzi-Moore incident is one of the most famous where a guy was prosecuted, but it led to broken vertebrae and ended a career. I didn't watch the game to which you are referring, so I really can't compare the two.
Todd McSorley was a pretty famous incident as well. I remember ol' Pete Franklin ranting about the stiff Rick Jodzio brutally beating Mark Tardif. Can't remember if Jodzio was prosecuted, or what eventually happened.
Interesting
How do they get around the actual legal definition of battery in contact sports? The law is the principle and everything in the land has to follow it. There isn't any stipulations that allow for punching people in the head in boxing eg
Well, given this statement, it is a no brainer. No one consents to be punched in the back of the head while kneeling.The legal definition of battery is non-consensual contact. Participating in a contact sport includes implied consent to a certain degree of forcible contact consistent with what the sport generally has tolerated. So, the prosecutions occur when the contact is so outside the normal bounds of the sport that it exceeds the level of implied consent.