Slashing >> Gray Areas >>

Shaft to the neck

/ Cross Checks, Gray areas, Hits to the head, Holding, No Call, No call
Correct Call: If the shaft is just resting there, No call. If there is a punching motion, Cross Check, 1 minute Non Releasable if the brunt of the force is directed into the neck or head area. If there is no punching, but the offensive player’s movement is impeded, 30 second hold. If the check started legal on his back, and then drove up into the head or neck, the same criteria above applies.
For this not to be a penalty: If there is no punching motion or impeding of the offensive player.
Game Level:This should be called at every level. However on lower skilled games or with two hot tempered players or teams, good game control would be to call this as strict as possible.

Check that starts low, ends up in the neck

/ Cross Checks, Gray areas, Hits to the head, Important
Correct Call: Cross check. 1 minute personal foul. This is one we have to be more consistent on. The check starts low but does end up in the neck. Per the rulebook, this should be a 1-3 minute non-releasable. How do we want to call this?
For this to not be a penalty: Keep the hands from sliding up into the neck.
Game Level:This could be called a more severe penalty on lower tiered games.