NHL Head Scratcher: League GMs Decide Against Banning Head Shots

The NHL general managers gathered at the Boca Beach Club this week to discuss various topics of concern around the league. Chief among them was the issue of hits to the head, which continue to be on the rise.

For Flyers' fans, and perhaps all hockey fans, the issue of legal head shots in the NHL came to the forefront when Scott Stevens leveled Eric Lindros during Game 7 of the 2000 Eastern Conference Finals.

That incident was brushed under the rug for the most part. Hockey purists claimed it was a legal hit, and that it wouldn’t have happened if he'd kept his head up. Plus, many people disliked Lindros, and there was a perception that he got what he deserved for wreaking havoc on opposing players over the years.

Fast forward 11 years, and dangerous hits to the head are occurring just about every week. For that reason, now would seem like a logical time for the NHL to at least put up a front of concern and make a statement to the fans that protecting the players is of the utmost importance.

But after slight deliberation, the GM's decided that they aren’t going to make all hits to the head illegal. That decision was made despite a study that said 14 percent of concussions this season were caused by legal hits to the head.

Think about that for a second. Imagine your place of business did a study and found out that 14 percent of work-related injures were caused by one identifiable and easily resolvable issue, yet they did nothing to discourage it.  

Now, I’m all for physical play in hockey, and that's the main reason why I love it. In fact, I am often defending legal hits that result in penalties and suspensions. It’s part of the game.

However, despite what I hear from NHL officials, head shots are such a small part of hockey and cause so many long term, potentially career-threatening injuries that eliminating them seems like a no-brainer. Pun intended.  

Now, it would be imprudent of me not to point out that the only part of the body that can hit the head legally is the shoulder. The head, knee, elbow, forearm and fist are all penalties, so the shoulder is all that is left. It begs the question: Why?

Well, if you ask the GM's or Commissioner Gary Bettman, taking away shoulder hits to the head would change the game.

Really? The same way that cracking down on boarding, cross-checking and blind side hits has changed the game?

There are more incidents of reckless play on those penalties this year than in any year prior. 

And how much effect could a two-minute penalty have on the game anyway? Not a major penalty, not an automatic ejection or suspension, but a minor penalty. It would simply be a step in the right direction to let everyone know that any head hits won’t be tolerated, and with that also comes the ability to take further action if necessary.

I actually wrote an article last year about how absurd it is that the NHL owners and GM's all agree that head shots are acceptable. I suggested that things would change if one of its star players was a victim. Yet the league’s poster boy, Sidney Crosby, is out indefinitely with concussions symptoms due to legal hits to his head, and the league has had no reaction.

So, in essence, the NHL is telling us is that the game is more important than any of the players in it.

That’s not a unique viewpoint for management of sports leagues, but one has to wonder what will trigger them to take a stand.

I think I can speak for everyone when I say that I hope it’s not a catastrophic injury or even worse.

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