This game was back in 2007. This was near the end of the "ruthless NHL era", when the NHL was trying to brand itself as the hard-hitting, brutal sport of hockey. So this type of stuff was accepted, and even quietly encouraged.

Now in the past couple years the NHL has cracked down significantly on player safety. This type of thing would probably lead to a suspension if it had happened during the current season. Players are getting suspended for a lot less right now.

One thing that the league looks at is whether the headshot was avoidable and predictable. This is a weird shot, because the forward was looking at the goalie, which means that its both avoidable and predictable (meaning the player could expect to be hit and should prepare for it). But because it was a goalie coming at him, the player probably never expected that the goalie would actually make contact with him. This makes it far less predictable, and therefore less avoidable.

Usually the goalies come up really far during these types of breakaways to create more favorable angles to protect the net. The player was most likely expecting the goalie to stop at some point and start backing up, and he was probably waiting for that to happen so he could deke (move around the goalie while he's immobilized from stopping) and get an easy open net score. So they essentially played a game of chicken, but the goalie never disengaged. This is very unexpected. To me the goalie should be suspended for this. Virtually no forward in the league would have expected the goalie to do that and the way the goalie hit him, it was clear that it could have been dangerous.

The hit was dangerous, but there's nothing in the rulebook (to my knowledge) that says a goalie can't hit another player.

Expectations are a weird way to make rules. I bet Gaborik didn't try playing chicken with Hasek again, right?

That was a clean move. Hasek had no way of knowing Gaborik would not be looking where he was going.

Hasek absolutely could see Gaborik had his head down. But you're not supposed to have your head down. Nowadays this would likely be seen as a hit to the head and possibly suspension worthy.

How was Hasek supposed to know Gaborik would not look up? This was not a blind-side hit.

How was Scott Stevens supposed to know Eric Lindros wouldn't look up? Pretty much the same answer. The rules were different back then, but today if you're about to hit someone with their head down you're expected to let up. Since Lindros' career was derailed by hits with his head down, players are now taught not to skate through traffic with your head down.

The scenarios are not the same for several reasons, the two most important being (1) Stevens performed a hit to the head, and (2) he did it to a defenseless player (Lindros was defenseless because he was cutting between defenders, not because he wasn't looking where he was going).