No subject pertaining to hockey evokes more emotion, or passionate discussion the last few years, than that of what can or should be done about hits to the head from an opposing player. I think it’s safe to say that everyone agrees, that any deliberate attempt to injure another player, especially where it concerns a blow to the head, requires a severe punishment. That could be in the form of a year long suspension, or some thing even more drastic, like expulsion from the league. What makes this discussion a little more difficult, is that in less obvious situations, where a legal but tough hit takes place, and it is to the head area, the answer is not so simple.
To illustrate the difficulty in making a black and white rule, with no grey areas, what happens if Boston’s Zdeno Chara is trying to make a clean hit on a smaller player ? It would be very easy with his size, for a player being checked cleanly by Chara, to have ones head on the receiving end, only because of the Bruins defenseman’s extreme size. If he’s going to make contact with a much smaller player who has the puck, but the other player only comes up to his chest, is Chara not supposed to check the opponent, even though the player in question has the puck, and may be creating a scoring chance for his team? You begin to see that the discussion can evolve into the possibility, and a scary one, of changing the game entirely, and making it a shadow of itself.
Body contact is an essential part of the game of hockey. Eliminating all and any possible chance of injury is impossible to do, in a very fast professional sport like hockey, where the participants are sometimes moving at the speed of a vehicle. If the idea is to eliminate any chance of injury, then you might as well take any body checking out of it. If this is the case, it’s not a game that I would want to watch. Most professional sports have some element of risk to them. If hitting in hockey is banned, then what’s next ? Inside pitches in baseball can also be dangerous,if they stray. I don’t think that hockey authorities and decision makers should start changing the core rules of the game, beyond enforcing extreme punishments for deliberate attempts to injure an opponent with a stick, or hits to the head, of players not in possession of the puck.
A related area of concern that needs much more examination, is that of the modern day equipment. Hockey people and medical authorities understand that when shoulder pads are as big as those worn by football players,to go along with very thick elbow pads, the danger to an opposing player is increased dramatically. The discussion on dangerous hits, needs to include an examination, of possible changes to equipment. As former Maple Leafs captain Wendel Clark explained to me, if a player has smaller equipment protecting his shoulders and elbows, he will likely be much more careful in delivering a hit, because the impact of a collision would likely affect both players, not just the one on the receiving end. Further to that point, if the player delivering a check, knows he is somewhat vulnerable to injury through a big hit, then that person would likely use an angle to deliver a hit, as opposed to a high velocity encounter.
The final component of this discussion needs to be the boards and glass around the ice surface. Rick Dudley, the Associate General Manager of the Atlanta Thrashers, reminded me of his playing days in Buffalo, and recollected that the boards and glass in some of the NHL arenas in the 1970’s, would move backwards quite a bit, after a hit would impact either part. By absorbing the hit and moving backwards somewhat, this would obviously lessen the impact of the blow on the players involved. With the size and speed of the modern day hockey player, it is imperative that hockey administrators, start to look at both player equipment, and arena boards and glass, when looking to maximize the safety of the participants. Hockey can safeguard its participants at all levels,with common sense, more so than than attempts to radically change the game many of us grew up with and love.