NHL hits to the head?

[The Q]

We had an article today by Carolyn on this. What are your thoughts guys and gals?

Headshots + Concussions - NHL News, gossip, Sidney Crosby, Todd Bertuzzi

Fans could argue for days over the effects of concussions, whether they’re serious, and why hockey gets all the blame when sports like rugby and football presumably have the same if not more incidents of head injury.

[rileyt]

Hockey is a violent sport. As the author of the article wrote at the end, the idea that we can totally eliminate the phyiscal element of the sport is pretty far-fetched. Having said that, I HATE the excuse that because the sport is so fast we should just let hits to the head slide. If you bring your stick up and it hits someone in the face you get a penalty. The rule is that players must keep control of their sticks. Why can't the NHL apply that same principle to controlling your body? Having Crosby miss a large chunk of last season drastically changed the playoff picture. I want to see the best teams and the best players compete for the cup, not the teams that were lucky enough to have their starting lines survive the regular season.

[sarahcasey]

I definitely agree Riley, hockey is a violent sport. It always will be. If you are at a game say at Rogers Arena, watching the Canucks play and burrows drops his gloves- the majority of the fans cheer and egg him on. Fans love the fighting, simple as that. It makes it that much more intense. I think really it's the way new hockey just is, you go to a game expecting a fight to happen and sometimes they are innocent fights whereas the Bertuzzi incident ( a sore subject because I know him personally) wasn't an innocent fight. I don't think it will ever end- there will always be tension in games until something is done with enforcement- but still, then I don't see any fights being prevented.

[richardhodges]

the NFL is getting its fair shame of blame as well, perhaps more so. It's not hard to find 50 year old ex-players with alzheimers these days and they had some growing pains last year implenting headshot rules.

It's a tough line to draw. I remember Torres last year after either the Eberle or Seabrook hit where he said that he had to make that hit or he's out of a job and he's absolutely right. It's the same reason you see so many incidents in pre-season involving scrubs. If they hesitate, if they let up, then the coach is chewing them out on the bench, and if they can't hit without abandon for many of those players there's no other hockey skill to fall back on that keeps them out of the AHL.

I like Shananan's work so far, especially the videos, but I think the culture of the game may take some years to filter out the players who hit like that because that's their job.