After a few days of round-the-clock meetings in Boca Raton, NHL General Managers have come to a consensus and put forth a proposal on what to do about headshots in the league.
What they’ve decided on is that headshots are still completely legal UNLESS they’re from the blindside, in which they’ll be automatically penalized and subject to possible ejection. Some of the exact terminology used, per TSN:
“A lateral, back pressure or blindside hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and or the principal point of contact is not permitted.
A violation of the above will result in a minor or major penalty and shall be reviewed for possible supplemental discipline.”
So, if that seems a little vague and part of the gray area that we have come to learn from the National Hockey League, join the club. Apparently, the Scott Stevens hit on Eric Lindros is still completely legal, so I’m assuming this is just a minor tweak at best.
Two other recommendations were made by the GMs as well, including changing the tiebreaking rule and moving to four-man referee teams in the AHL.
The former will be tweaked concerning seeding in the standings, as overall wins has been used in the past in tiebreaker situations. Now, shootout wins have been eliminated in the totals, meaning only regular season and overtime wins will matter.
Travis Yost is a native New Yorker and recent Arizona State University product . He is the team beat writer for the Ottawa Senators over at Hockey Buzz, and covers all sports here at The Prose. 
I think that’s a pretty good outline for a rule. The Matt Cooke headshot is a complete headshaker, but a lot of headshots on direct hits are inadvertent blows.