NHL players too strong, fast for their own good

It was always with the best intentions, of course, yet the forces of natural selection, technical innovation and wildly lucrative financial payoffs have combined in the 21st century to produce an unnerving level of injuries.

This is not a new development. For the last decade or more, NHL players too numerous to mention have seen their careers cut short by concussions, including some of the game's biggest stars. Eric Lindros and Pat Lafontaine come immediately to mind.

But the sheer number of head injuries plaguing today's NHL is more than troubling. There's actually open speculation that, sooner or later, a hit on a National Hockey League ice surface will lead to injury from which a player will not recover. Ever. It's almost too morbid to contemplate, but how many times do you have to witness a victim being carted off the ice on a stretcher before the prospect of a worst-case scenario arises?

Just last week, the NHL's GMs and executives held meetings to discuss how they could have more meetings to establish a committee to make recommendations that might address the hot-topic issue. Reports indicate that even hardliners who have long resisted any changes that might nancify (their words) the game are rethinking their position in light of recent incidents -- such as Mike Richards' now-infamous hit that crumpled David Booth.

Swivel

Perhaps increase automatic suspensions for blind-sided hits. Look at new and perhaps safer helmets. Amp up player PSAs to keep their heads on a swivel while cutting across the blue-line.

All these would be noble attempts to make the game safer. But do any of them address the genesis of the NHL's Stretcher Era? Or are all of these executive directors ignoring the elephant in the dressing room?

Think about it: The size of an NHL rink hasn't really changed since the days of Howie Morenz. Or Gordie Howe. Or Bobby Orr. Yet even if the average height of the players hasn't increased too dramatically -- the average NHL player is around 6-foot-1 -- it's the dynamics of the frame that has evolved over the years to create an increasingly dangerous environment.

It's just physics. Players now train year-round. They work on their foot speed, their explosiveness. There are no slugs in the NHL, they've been made extinct by the faster tempo of the game.

So these guys work their bodies into highly sculpted masses. Then they put on skates. Then they don shoulder and elbow pads that have the strength and hardness of turtle shells. In essence, these are pieces of protective gear that become weapons.

Hence, why should we be so shocked that -- at the game's highest level -- you put a bunch of incredibly strong, swift agile athletes on skates, put them in coats of armour where shoulders and elbows are thrown with force, and wonder why every so often one of them ends up in an ambulance.

Technology

The problem is that physical evolution can't keep pace with technology and training. Whatever mechanisms that protect the brain, they can't compete with the advances that make it more vulnerable to concussion.

Then there's the respect issue. The argument is being made that players should stop hitting from behind or at any time when their opponent is vulnerable. That's good in theory. But the game moves so fast now. The puck carrier is faster, the guy lining him up is faster. Almost every incident of a dangerous hit involves split-second decision-making in a sport where -- and this cannot be understated -- violent collisions are in the DNA of the game and its participants.

Question: Do you think Mike Richards got to the NHL by passing up open-ice hits when an opponent didn't keep his head up? Do you think in the .02 seconds Richards had before the opportunity to hit Booth, he took it to contemplate the ramifications of his actions or the possible damage to Booth? Of course not. If Richards actually had the time to think all that out, the outcome probably would have been much different.

There are no easy solutions. You can try to legislate out dangerous hits, but that doesn't address the physical equation of mass and speed = force. Throw in an elbow pad that could have been made by NASA and logic dictates head injuries will results. Players will get concussed. They're only human, after all.

In fact, sometimes they're too human to protect themselves. They're too human to protect each other.

Our advice to the NHL? Do everything you can to ensure the well-being of the players. Because when the predator becomes the prey, every other advance is working against them.

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 17, 2009 C1