You ' re right in the eyes of the rule book . I think they should change that . What appears to be happening is instead of bracing for the hit as every single tyke is taught to do at a young age , you ' re getting players deliberately putting themselves in harm ' s way . In situations like this to protect the puck . It ' s easy to say it ' s on the offending player , but if you ' re coming in for a hit and he turns into the boards at the last minute , you can ' t stop . That ' s on the guy with the puck . Unfortunately I don ' t know how to fix it . Maybe a failure to adequately protect yourself penalty to the victim ? Make them offsetting ? Just need something to counter the reward system for leaving yourself vulnerable . It ' s unsafe they way it is currently designed