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Hockey Has to Step UP

Written by: Tyler Bodman on 23rd November 2009

PHOTO BY SCOTT VANKOUGHNETT

The hockey world has to step up and take the dangerous hitting out like this one in the Memorial Cup last spring. | read this item

People are used to Brett Hull speaking his mind. But, when other Hall of Fame members start to chime in, it’s time the hockey world starts to pay attention to what they’re preaching.

It’s inevitable. Every season the world of hockey seems to go through a stretch where there’s one nasty headshot after another. Then without a word it stops for a month or two. That is, until this fall. The season is about a quarter of the way through for most hockey leagues. There have been more headshots this season then people diagnosed with the dreaded H1N1 flu.

Some pundits point towards the amount of media coverage in today’s game versus say 15 or even 10 years ago. Brett Hull on the other hand has his own view and not surprisingly he’s not alone.

“The onus has to be on the players to have a little bit of respect for each other,” Hull said at the Hockey Hall of Fame Induction ceremony. “There are going to be hits where people get hurt but somebody has to do something about the unnecessary headshots.”

There are currently nine NHL players on the shelf with diagnosed concussions and another eight with various head injuries. Unfortunately, the AHL and CHL don’t disclose injuries so there’s no concrete way to have exact concussion numbers across all leagues.

Everyone has seen the Mike Liambus hit on Ben Fanelli. And, the Mike Richards hit on David Booth. What Brett Hull says seems to hold true.

“I don’t think there’s any respect in the game,” explains Hull. “Or it wouldn’t happen.“

Maybe.

But, head injuries aren’t new. Some of the head injuries players suffered in the past are a lot more vicious than those of today. Eddie Shore for example didn’t sow much respect to Ace Bailey when he almost killed him, back when players “respected” each other more.

I digress; as research progresses and technology is improved doctors today are better suited to diagnose the concussions that may have gone undetected in years past.

The legendary Scotty Bowman has a slightly different take on why there are so many concussions in today’s game.

“Players skate a lot faster,” Bowman said at the HHOF Induction ceremony. “I think the long pass is one of the biggest reasons. I wasn’t a supporter of taking [the red line] out. Guys looking back for pucks, they aren’t all the headshots, but I think they have to do something about it. There are a lot of blind spots on the ice. A good shoulder check is a lot different than getting hit in the head.”

Stanley Cup winner and Hall of Fame member Lanny MacDonald agrees with Bowman.

“The biggest challenge is the speed and size of the players,” said MacDonald. “Equipment is as hard as it is, it doesn’t take anything more than a glancing blow and you’re done.”

Former New Jersey Devils captain, Scott Stevens made a career out of questionable hits. He agrees that the speed is a major factor but cautions the league to not take anymore of the physical play away from the game.

“There are certain ones you have to watch,” said Stevens who was at the HHOF to watch his former GM get inducted. “A good open ice hit, I don’t want to see that taken out of the game. I think getting rid of the red line has caused more of these problems because it’s made the game faster. Not being able to step in front of a guy either has made the hits more violent.”

Stevens brought up another interesting point. He puts some of the blame on the defending team’s own goalie.

“If you look at these [hits], especially with Hedman, the goalie is sort of screening the defenceman,” he said. “He loses site of the forechecker. And a lot of the times it causes the problem. The goalie goes out to stop the puck and he gets in between you and the forechecker and if you look at both of those situations in [Kitchener] and Hedman, I think the goalie blocked his vision and he wasn’t able to see the guy coming.”

Hull’s father and fellow Hall of Famer Bobby Hull blames the NHL for the current pandemic.

“They let the tail wag the dog, and then they go after these guys,” said the elder Hull who played 16 seasons in the NHL and another eight in the WHA. “Instead of doing it when the first guy takes a run at somebody and doesn’t have any respect for the guy, that’s when they should do it. They shouldn’t wait until a whole bunch of them start doing it.”

Figuring out how to stop these dangerous hits. That’s the difficult part.

“I don’t know how you’re going to ban it,” says Bowman. “But, the penalties have to be more severe because there are a lot of injuries.”

The OHL made a statement when they suspended Mike Liambus for the remainder of the season and playoffs. The suspension ends the over-ager’s OHL career.

The suspension handed down by David Branch might be steep but you can be sure that players in the “O” are going to think twice about laying questionable hits for fear of receiving the same fate as Liambus.

The NHL has no problem suspending their fringe players when they lay a hit to the head. But when a star player does it they typically deem the hit “clean” and wash their hands of the situation.

Suspend the stars and the rest of the players will fall into line. What other choice does the NHL have?

Like Bobby Hull says: “Kids are bigger stronger, better; shoot faster, harder; skate faster. But they don’t play for the same reason we did. We played to make a boyhood dream come true and to entertain you people. Not to pad our bank rolls.”

Topics: Ben Fanelli, Bobby Hull, Brett Hull, David Branch, headshots, Lanny MacDonald, Mike Liambus, Scott Stevens, Scotty Bowman

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