I'm probably considered old too, and I just don't see these hits as anything that resembled older style hockey either.
Too many factors to list of what has changed over the years, but overall these hits back in the day would have been met with some sort of retribution, call it what you will, the players themselves would have done something.
Now the league wants to get rid of that sort of thing, but they do not put any of their own policing into effect and it's just a slippery slope that is going to lead to more hits like this.
If the game were even remotely emotional, if these guys were out there knocking the stuffing out of each other, I could see players going up high with these sort of "his head was down" hits, and the players would be expecting it.
But to me all these hits are is a punk move. I am not squaring off with him, so I'll wait until he looks the other way and then sock him sort of thing. The more the players get away with that sort of thing the more it will happen. The league has removed the players from trying to do anything about it, and they themselves are promoting it by not doing anything about it themselves.