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Gulutzan has never seen a bounty program in the NHL

Stars Coach Hockey

New Dallas Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan speaks at a news conference, Monday, June 20, 2011, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Matt Strasen)

AP

When news about the NFL New Orleans Saints’ bounty system broke out, which was a rule breaking program that rewarded players for injuring opposing players, sports fans could only hope that this was an isolated incident. Stars coach Glen Gulutzan weighed in on Thursday to say that he’s never seen any evidence to suggest that a similar program exists in the NHL.

“I have never heard of it in my days being around rinks. I’ve never seen it. I don’t think it’s a problem,” Gulutzan said. “There’s no internal, ‘Let’s get this guy’ talk. But they know who the best players are, and come this time of year, they’re going to play them hard. Sometimes that crosses the line, and sometimes it doesn’t. But as far as something organized, I’ve never seen it in hockey.”

Dangerous hits are still a point of concern and the NHL has been dealing with them on a case-by-case basis. On Friday, for example, we might see Duncan Keith get handed a big suspension for his hit on Daniel Sedin. However, bounty programs are a much different beast and hopefully the Saints program is the only one that was out there in professional sports.