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One year after Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron was hit from behind by Flyers defenseman Randy Jones, suffering a grade 3 concussion that would cause him to miss the remainder of the 2007-08 season and the Bruins first round playoff series with Montreal, the NHL is still turning a blind eye to similar hits and blows to the head. Despite numerous claims that they league is doing it’s best to minimize head injuries and make the game safer, the powers that be are yet to take the necessary actions to do so and as a result, players still have intentional and unintentional disregard for the safety of their peers. Until the league officially penalizes all hits to the head, regardless of intention or individual incidents, nothing will change!
This past Saturday, Islanders forward Doug Weight caught Hurricanes rookie forward Brandon Sutter with what yes under today’s NHL rules is a clean-hit, but still was a blind-sided blow to the head. The hit sent Sutter to the hospital with a serious concussion that would keep him there overnight for observation and force him to travel back to Raleigh by train because of the severity of the concussion.
Just as Jones is known to be a “clean” player, so is Weight and in both instances, each player showed sincerity and remorse when claiming there was no intent to injure. While Weight and Jones may not have been trying to hurt Sutter and Bergeron, the fact remains that they did in fact injure another player and didn’t let up on their hits despite the other player not having the puck or being in a defenseless position.
Now one can argue, as many did following the Bergeron-Jones incident, that players should “know better” than to leave themselves prone to such injuries or that the game needs to maintain it’s physicality, and while the latter is by all means true, the former is simply absurd! No player should have to skate around in constant fear that an opposing player may seriously injure him. There are those that claim penalizing every hit to the head would also slow the pace of a game down but then can you not say the same if every player has to go into the corners wondering if he will be hurt and possibly never play another shift? Instituting a penalty for head-shots would at least force the hitter take that split-second to think and let-up.
Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli had every right to respond in anger as he did to the blame cast on Bergeron following his injury a year ago.
"They're saying that (Patrice) is partially at fault for this and it angers me,” Chiarelli said then.
“It angers the Bruins organization that they would actually say that it was his fault in this case. To say that he should have been more careful retrieving the puck, to me, is absurd.
He went in there hard, but he is not a reckless player. If he had gone in any other way, people would have called him afraid...So, I am angry, the Bruins organization is angry and I want to make that known.”
Bergeron suffered a serious case of post-concussion syndrome and doctors actually claimed he was “inches from a life-threatening injury”. Yet, there were those hockey pundits as there still are a year later following similar hits that blamed Bergeron and the recipients of such hits.
“I want to (reiterate) our anger and dismay at these outlets," Chiarelli said at the time.
“I want to be sure that they see our point of view, Patrice's point of view, his family's point of view. Patrice had (family members) who were watching that game that thought he was dead. So there is a large impact on the victim and his family, here, that is going unnoticed.
If he would have went in there skating backwards (looking out for himself) he would have been called a (wimp). Right? How would (they) expect him to go after the puck. You assume a lot of risk (playing hockey), but you don't assume that you are going to be driven from behind like that. Patrice has been playing hockey his whole life. He is a tough kid.
My objective here is two things: One, to set the record straight (in regards) to those who say that Patrice is at fault here, which I think is ridiculous. Two, to really show the magnitude of his injuries, because they are quite serious. There is the concussion. That's serious. And there's the broken nose. That's serious. But he almost broke his neck!”
Two weeks later, Bergeron would finally address the media and make a public plea to NHL players to have more respect for each other.
“Right now, part of this is to send a message that we need to think about the consequences when you go for a hit like that," Bergeron said.
“You have to hold back. Hitting is part of the game, but not from behind. Obviously, we need to think about that throughout the league. As players, we need to respect each other a little bit more. I know I'm not the only one who's been saying that in past years. I think it's something that needs to be done. It's about thinking about the consequences when you're on the ice. I'm sure no one would like to be in my position right now. It's tough. But at the same time, I'm actually walking. It could be worse.”
But one year later that plea seems to have fallen on deaf ears. A week ago, following his first game at home since suffering that concussion last year, Bergeron pointed out that nothing has changed with regards to head-shots. He also expressed cynicism that head-shots may never leave the game because the league and the NHLPA refuse to acknowledge what because of the speed of the game and size of today’s players, is a scary phenomenon that may eventually paralyze or even worse kill a player.
“I still feel the same way I did a year ago,” Bergeron said.
“But these hits are still happening and it’s a scary thing. We need to have more respect for the game and each other. I don’t know if that’s ever going to happen.”
Following Sutter’s injury on Saturday, Hurricanes General Manager Jim Rutherford expressed similar sentiments and told TSN’s Bob McKenzie that unless the league and it’s players are truly going to make an effort to eliminate such hits, then they should stop trying to claim that’s what they’re doing.
"The league should at least stop saying it's concerned with hits to the head, because it's not," Rutherford told TSN.ca.
"I've had four players - Erik Cole, Trevor Letowski, Matt Cullen and now Brandon Sutter get badly injured on hits to the head and only one of the guys who hit them was suspended. So don't tell me the league is concerned about hits to the head because it's not. I realize there are only two ways you can go on this: Either you have a penalty for head-checking, like they do in the Ontario Hockey League, or you don't and we don't in the NHL and I understand that and that's fine, I guess, but don't tell anyone you care about protecting the players' heads because it's not happening.
You can say it's a contact game and it is, and I'm fine with that. Just don't say you care about players getting hit in the head because you don't.”
Rutherford, Chiarelli and Bergeron are absolutely right. The league needs to decide whether it’s serious or not about ridding the game of head-shots. There should be no grey area as there is now. Regardless of intention, such hits should be penalized. Until that day arrives, plan on reading false statements about the league doing “everything possible” to stop this dilemma. You can also plan on seeing more NHLers carried off the ice and while it’s scary to imagine or contemplate, don’t be surprised if one of those players never returns to the game, or his feet or God forbid, never wakes up!
Slainte,
Murph
