I watched Patrice Cormier's hit on Mikael Tam - sickening is the only word I can use to describe it. That was a vicious elbow that would make Gordie Howe wince. That kind of thing must be removed from the game, full stop and Cormier, needs to be made an example of. I don't think the Q suspending him for the remainder of the year and the playoffs is too harsh at all - I think that's fair.
I think people in the hockey establishment need to look at a few aspects of the game and maybe make some changes to start protecting the overall health of the players:
- Four on Four - I know it is a big change, but the players are getting so much bigger at the professional level and the NHL refused to move to Olympic size ice fifteen years ago before all the new arenas started popping up, so now few players on the ice is the only way to create more room. Also, it creates a more entertaining form of the game, less obstruction, more skill. Change like this is scary, but it needs to happen!
- Equipment - Shoulder pads and elbow pads are now out of control. Some players in the NHL look like NFL linebackers their shoulder pads are so big. More importantly is the materials these things are made out of - space age plastics and foams that have nearly the density of steel without the weight. I also am not aware of any specific safety advantage that those monster shoulder pads have. Same with elbow pads, they are huge pieces of foam and plastic fastened with super velcro. I think they can certainly diminish in size with little impact on player safety.
- Government Regulation - I don't mean government's making laws about headshots. I think the Canadian government really needs to give the CSA a mandate to rigourously test all helmets, shoulder pads and elbow pads on the market today. With helmets, they need to work out if the current designs are protecting players from concussion and maybe the government should fund some research with a few leading universities around the country to potentially come up with a better industrial design for helmets. Look at everything, materials, design, usability, etc. With elbow pads and shoulder pads, they should be compared to models from the 80's and work out what, if any the safety advantages are in the newer equipment versus some of the potential dangers.
I'm not against hitting or anything like that. I think the recent hit Ryan Wilson of Colorado put on Patrik Elias of the Devils was totally clean. Elias came through the neutral zone at speed and the WHOLE TIME if you look closely he had his head down. Then as he comes towards the blue line he looks up and it is far too late - he doesn't take a peek up until he's dumped the puck. Sorry folks, teach your kids to skate with their heads up.
Personally, I'm not hopeful that any of these changes will happen. I think the biggest opposition would come from equipment manufacturers and strangely, the NHLPA. The NHLPA would lose membership because in a four on four league, you could reduce the number of players required. I believe this would get rid of the Colton Orr's and the Derek Boogaard's of the NHL - I'm not saying it would eliminate fighting, but you couldn't carry those kind of players in a faster, more skilled league with a smaller bench.
I think that being the case, the people who should drive it are the three men I reckon are the most powerful people in the game: Bob Nicholson, David Branch and John Gardner. Nicholson, through Hockey Canada could revolutionise coaching standards that put an emphasis on 4-on-4 player tactically and really focus on player safety. David Branch could work with the WHL, OHL and QMJHL to move to 4-on-4 straight away and change the NHL's main feeder system. John Gardner controls the largest minor hockey organisation in the world, an organisation with a $3.5m running cost that gets ZERO government funding, yet for the past 30 years under Gardner's leadership, the GTHL (formerly MTHL) has thrived and grown to develop some of the best players in the world - Rick Nash, Jason Spezza, John Tavares, Sam Gagne, Andrew Cogliano, etc. If Gardner could find a way to turn the GTHL into a safer, 4-on-4 league, then it would be a fait accomplis that hockey would change.
I believe this revolution in safety must come from below and not from on high. The NHL doesn't care about the several hundred thousand kids playing the game in small parts of Canada. Those kids will see on TV and YouTube some of the outlandish cheap shots to the head that have become part of today's game and think that's ok. Then thousands of those kids will be concussed each year. That's a price too high to pay so that Easton can sell "cool" shoulder pads and the NHLPA can keep the worst 10% of its players around.
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