Injuries are a part of all sports, and contact sports are no different. Most fans of most teams will always whine for their home team’s bad luck each year whenever the injury bug inevitably hits mid season. Having said that, what is the deal with the perpetual state of red alert with the 30 NHL team’s medical staffs?
Monday NHL Senior Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell issued a memo warning all NHL players of the leagues stance on head-shots. At this very moment all NHL players are likely huddled in the corner shivering with fear and likely wanting to quit hockey all together… Can you tell by my heavy sarcasm that NO ONE is buying this memo routine?
Jim Rutherford called the league out several weeks ago after Brandon Sutter took a nasty, yet legal, shot to the head from former Cane Doug Weight. Rutherford had some very direct words for the leagues lack of action against the safety of the players. JR has every right to be upset, while the Weight hit was fairly legal Rutherford has seen upwards of six players out with major head injuries which have combined for only about six games worth of suspensions handed out. The most notable of issues was Erik Cole’s broken neck at the hands of Brooks Orpik about 2 years ago, resulting in a three game suspension for Orpik and roughly 30+ games lost by Cole (including all but the final two games during the Canes championship run).
The NHL’s posturing in regards to keeping the game safe has been increasingly hollow as each year passes. All too often the league “cracks down” when a top tier player goes down, but when a small market teams 4th liner is on the receiving end of a head-shot the league is MIA, and on a good day a basic statement is released, likely copy and pasted from the “media-release template” in MSWord.
We all remember the Bertuzzi/Moore incident a few years ago. Todd Bertuzzi’s retaliatory hit on Steve Moore left him unable to ever play hockey again. As disgusted as I and most people were at the lack of respect and professionalism by Todd Bertuzzi, I did find a silver lining to that very dark cloud over the NHL at that time. The NHL had a golden opportunity for sweeping change around the league regarding safety. Gary Bettman could have instituted major change throughout hockey to help limit, and even obliterate, excessive hits in the league. While some old-school fans would find it extreme, a vast majority would understand the merit and even call for such drastic modification.
Was that call answered… by anyone? No!
I recall a hit several years ago where the then Shark Steve Marchment, charged, left his feet in open ice and leveled Shane Willis at his head. Of Course Willis was down and out, and Marchment was given a stern 3 game suspension. The intent was obvious, the injury could have been deadly, and the leagues response? A yawn and a slap on the wrist.
Now imagine today, a player makes the same run at Sidney Crosby. The league would expel the player for life and likely have that player banished to European leagues for the rest of his career. Of course, THEN you’d actually see some real change. Is it going to take that caliber of injury, even potential critical injury for the league to wake up?
The consensus has always maintained that hockey is physical sport and hitting, and fights, are just part of the game. The idea is just that we’re to accept that, obey, and move on. It seems to me, that the NHL has always been behind the eight-ball. While Football, Basketball, and Baseball have evolved to include a modern approach, the NHL relied on the old standby “…it’s always been this way…,” everyone mindlessly agrees and says that the players should police themselves.
Does that argument even make sense?
If we were to say “Let’s let the public police themselves…,” there would be bedlam. Police are there for a reason, for a form of authority and to enforce rules set forth. On-ice officials are there to keep the game in order and moving, and most of all keep the players safe by enforcing the rules of the game.
If you go through the history of all sports, rough play, cheap-shots and even fighting were common. The difference is that all those other sports put rules in place and eliminated dirty play, but kept the essence of the game. Football today includes some of the most bone-shattering hits ever, but they are constantly evolving to include the safety of kickers, quarterbacks and any player in a position to incur injury due to executing their arrangement on the field. Baseball used to follow this code lead by goons, pitching at rookies to send them a message. Basketball, without pads, saw elbows and arms swing back and forth with no regard for anybody around the net. All of the major sports evolve, and decide do they want to keep the same rules from 1920, or adapt to 2008.
The NHL is constantly ignoring the evolution of the sport that could see it as one of the top sports markets in the world. It took a lockout merely three years ago to install the shootout as part of the game. That same lockout finally yielded a limiting of the most boring concept of all sports, clutching and grabbing that stunted the offensive superstars. Why did it take the NHL so long to find its slam-dunk or homerun?
Some would argue that fighting is a draw for the sport, that it is exciting and can change the game. I won’t argue the excitement factor, however ask yourself… In the top sport in North America, football, how many fights do they have? I personally cannot recall one. The NFL is very strict on fighting and you rarely see anything more than a few pushes and heated words. Why is that? Could it be because there is already so much speed and hitting during the game play that it distracts from the greatest factor, the scoreboard? Isn’t it a cheap way to win by luring the other team’s playmakers into their own penalty box? As a fan I feel cheated when a player making millions is sitting in the penalty box with under 5minutes to go in a close game. What’s more most all fans feel cheated when the star player or even favorite player is in the press box due to a potentially avoidable injury.
Wake up NHL. You are 5th in the top four major sports in North America… Behind the surging NASCAR. While I personally am not a NASCAR fan, I am a huge fan of their progressive fan based marketing. You could learn a lot from the other sports and institute progressive and revolutionizing change to bump the fastest team sport from 5th to #1. I truly believe that.
A good start? Eliminate ALL headshots.