US Sports

The world’s best ice hockey player highlights the growing problem his and other sports face with concussion.

By Sean Nolan

At 23, Sidney Crosby had the hockey world at his feet at the beginning of 2011. Already the winner of a Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009, he scored the winning goal in overtime of the gold medal match for Canada at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Against the USA.

In short, he is ice hockey for most people in North America, especially those with only a passing interest in the sport. That is why his absence from the game since January 5 because of concussion is the biggest crisis to face the sport since the ruinous strike of 1994-5.

Crosby suffered two hits to the head in the first week of 2011. The first was in the Winter Classic, an annual outdoor game played in front of 68,000 in Pittsburgh on New Year’s Day. As you can see below, Crosby received a blindside shoulder to the head from the Washington Capitals David Steckel. Standing six inches taller than Crosby, Steckel claimed it was unintentional and he did not receive a penalty for the hit.

Four days later, Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman rammed Crosby into the boards head first from behind (see below) and Crosby left the game. It wasn’t a called penalty either. As you can see, it was a much milder hit but the evidence is that after one concussion, you become much more susceptible to another one in the aftermath.

Crosby badly missed

Crosby was subsequently diagnosed with a concussion and there is still no date for his return to action. Crosby skated for the first time last week but nobody expects him to be back playing soon, and with the Penguins beginning their play-off run in a few weeks, his loss is keenly felt not just by fans of Pittsburgh, but by the entire NHL.

Ideally they would like him back to full health, dazzling the league with his skill and allowing everybody to forget about head injuries. But every day he is out, the cries for change grow louder.

No deterrent

Take the case of Marc Savard. The Boston Bruins All-Star received a vicious blindside hit from Matt Cooke of the Penguins last year (see below). In the furore following the incident, the NHL banned blindside hits but as you have seen they are still happening and they are largely going unpunished. Those that have been charged have received bans as small as just two games, meaning the deterrent is simply not there.

Savard suffered headaches and memory problems following the hit but he returned for last season’s play-offs. This season another, less violent, hit ended his season with another concussion. Like Crosby there is no timetable for his return.

Cooke was up to his old antics again at the weekend, brutally elbowing Ryan McDonagh of the New York Rangers.

Cooke was ejected from the game and hit with a suspension for the rest of the season and the first round of the play-offs. McDonagh returned to the ice later in the game, despite looking badly shaken by the hit.

Mood for change

The mood against the type of aggressiveness ice hockey is famed for has never been higher. Traditionalists may want to keep the high hits and the fights but as we learn more about the danger of multiple concussions, the game will simply have to change.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative disease of the brain, appears to be now inextricably linked to repeated head trauma. A former Detroit Red Wing and Chicago Blackhawk player Bob Probert, better known for his violence than his skills, died of a heart attack aged 45 last year and a study of his brain revealed last month that he suffered from CTE, a possible explanation for his off-field behavioural problems since retirement in 2002.

The NHL must do all it can to protect all its players, not just its brightest star. The extreme violence attracts some but it is increasingly repelling others.

The league’s General Managers met over the weekend, with the head hits high on the agenda. They announced a concussion protocol to help team’s evaluate concussions correctly but decided not to ban hits to the head, which are banned in most hockey leagues around the world.

One in ten players in the NHL has been concussed this year. With the new protocol, expect many more to be diagnosed. Players are adults, very well paid adults, so if they wish to endanger their health nobody can stop them.

Onus on NHL to make the game safe

But as their employers, the NHL has a duty of care to make their workplace as safe as possible. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell banned head hits this season after a spate of concussions and the mounting evidence of CTE in his former players. The onus now falls on the NHL to do the same.

Nobody wants to see Sidney Crosby rushed back to action. Another high hit could end his career and, more importantly, severely damage his health. The NHL must do all it can to protect all its players, not just its brightest star. The extreme violence attracts some but it is increasingly repelling others.

Let’s hope the NHL takes action before it is too late, for the players and for the sport.

To read a similar article on concussion in the NFL, click here.