That’s just two days shy of the first anniversary of Matt Cooke‘s brutal blindside cheap on Marc Savard, who has yet to fully recover from the serious concussion it caused and is currently sidelined for the season after suffering another concussion in January.
The Penguins come to Boston without Sidney Crosby, as the league’s top attraction is out indefinitely as well after suffering a concussion of his own in January. Pittsburgh teammates Arron Asham and Eric Tangradi are out with concussions as well, while Bruins rookie defenseman Steven Kampfer joined the growing list of concussed NHLers as he was diagnosed with a mild concussion after being hit Thursday against Tampa Bay.
The continued rash of head injuries has been a front-burner issue in the NHL in the past year, and there have been some improvements with the new rule implemented against blindside and lateral hits to the head. But a quick glance through the list of man-games lost to injury on just about every NHL roster reveals that the league still has a long way to go in dealing with this issue.
So how does the NHL improve player safety without eliminating the physicality that makes the sport so compelling?
One thing is for sure, legislation alone is not the answer. A moral code among the players is far more important than anything that can be written into the rulebook.
Don’t get me wrong, the addition of Rule 48 banning illegal checks to the head was a good first step, and the players have taken notice. But no rule can eliminate head shots completely, and some head shots come from incidental contact that is impossible to legislate out of the game.
“We’re making strides,” Bruins forward Shawn Thornton said. “That rule’s great. You’re not going to take contact out of the game. It’s what makes the game great. The Crosby situation, I don’t think the guy saw him. It’s incidental contact. Put any rule you want in, that stuff’s going to happen every once in a while. It’s unfortunate that it’s maybe the best player in the game that it happened to, but you have 10 big bodies moving around really quick out there. Sometimes people are going to run into each other. It’s part of the game.”
Crosby was initially hurt in the Winter Classic when clipped by then-Washington center David Steckel in what appeared to be an accidental collision. The real concern in Crosby’s situation isn’t necessarily whether there was any intent on Steckel’s part, but whether there are proper precautions in place to protect players after such hits and if the Penguins followed that protocol, as Crosby returned to play the next game on Jan. 5 and was hit high again by Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman.
Things have gotten better in that regard, too. The Bruins, in conjunction with their medical staff and Savard himself, wisely opted to shut down the center this season after his latest concussion. Time and rest are the only true cure for concussions. And greater respect among players may be the only way to prevent more of them.
Some of that respect can be enforced externally. With Rule 48 on the books, the league has the ability to properly punish offenders with supplemental discipline.
“Just make sure that when it does happen, you get punished,” Bruins forward Mark Recchi said. “The punishment’s there, and eventually guys will wake up if they’re consistent with this and stick with it.”
Unfortunately, on Colin Campbell‘s watch the league has rarely ruled judiciously, with suspensions varying wildly and precedents ignored. It’s up to the players to police themselves, but that ability has largely been taken away from them.
The irony is that Rule 48 was made necessary largely because of the addition of another rule that forever changed the nature of the game for the worse. Recchi is one of the few current players with a true perspective on how the instigator rule has altered the game as he made his NHL debut in 1988, four years before the instigator rule was introduced. The agitators and cheap-shot artists like Cooke are now protected from retribution and can do their dirty work largely without fear of being held accountable.
“That’s a big part of it,” Recchi said of the lack of respect among players in today’s game. “It’s a lot different than when I started. There was a great deal of respect back when I started, but there was also no instigator [rule] when I started either. The game’s different because those guys get protected now. If they are cheap, you can’t really do a lot about it now without hurting your team. Those guys that do that stuff, that disrespect other players, get away with it more than when I first started. Back when I started there’s no way they’re getting away with that stuff.”
The late-1980s saw the highest fight totals in NHL history, but it was also an era of unprecedented scoring as the stars were allowed to shine under the protection of enforcers who could actually enforce. And despite the frequent fisticuffs, the game was safer and cleaner.
“There were a lot of fights, but there were never cheap hits,” Recchi said. “I never saw any of that. The guys respected each other and played the right way and were honest, and if you weren’t, then [bleep] hit the fan. If you were going to be cheap, you better be ready to drop the gloves. That’s the aspect of the game that’s been lost because those guys are protected now.”
Sadly, it’s not as simple as just repealing the instigator rule. The league is unwilling to take the PR hit of being perceived as promoting fighting, even if such a move might actually make the game safer.
“I think it’s too far beyond that,” Recchi said. “If you keep cracking down on the cheap shots then hopefully it will eventually go away and those guys will be non-factors. The league will handle it, take care of it. That’s all we can hope for at this point.”
But the league’s track record doesn’t offer much hope. It’s up to the players to get the game back under control by exhibiting some self control on themselves and their peers. After all, it could be any one of them whose career could be in jeopardy next.
What is the key to cutting down on concussions in the NHL? Share your thoughts below.
