Players need to stop making excuses for injuries they cause and instead do something about them.
By MARK SPECTOR
sportsnet.ca
"It was a freaky play." - Jarome Iginla.
"Obviously, I didn't mean to hurt him." - Mike Richards.
"Oh my God." - Sabres forward Clarke MacArthur.
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The former two players I know to be good guys and honest players. I don't know MacArthur, but people I trust say he is a solid, decent guy.
All of which means nothing to their victims. Because let's face it: a concussion is a concussion, whether it comes one of the best people in the game in Iginla, or from Jordin Tootoo or Sean Avery.
The National Hockey League general managers had barely boarded their flights home from the GMs meetings, when MacArthur drove Edmonton call-up Liam Reddox head-first into the boards with a textbook hit from behind.
Then of course, the requisite deflection of blame.
"We were leaning on each other and when he went to shoot it he was off-balance. One of those bad situations. I hope he's all right. I never mean to put a guy in that spot," said MacArthur, reciting his apology right off of the NHLPA cheat sheets.
It was no different when Richards caught David Booth in a moment of vulnerability, and stomped his foot on the gas.
"Obviously, I was not trying to hurt him. I was trying to separate him from the puck, but he moved," said Richards.
Or even Iginla, another clean, respected player who dangerously placed his stick in between the feet of defenceman Sheldon Souray as the two went head-long into a corner. Souray stepped on Iginla's stick -- which had nothing to gain from being in that spot -- and he hasn't played since, felled by a major concussion.
"It was a freaky play," Iginla said afterwards. "I definitely didn't mean to do it."
Freaky play?
Two guys go after a puck in the corner? What is so freaky about that?
"Obviously, I was not trying to hurt him?" stated Richards.
What was obvious is that Richards had an opportunity to ensure that Booth wasn't seriously hurt, but instead of slowing down he levelled as hard a hit as he could possibly throw. He didn't even tap on the brakes. "Obviously," whether or not Booth was seriously injured never even crossed Richards' mind.
And MacArthur's hit? That falls under that time-worn category: It happens so fast.
NHL players make good, smart plays at lightning speed every shift and accept the credit and the paycheque that comes with it. But when they make a dumb play under pressure, they deflect the blame. "It happened so fast."
Yeah, well, you're a pro.
It is time to cut to the chase on the increasing severity of injuries in the NHL. Not just head shots -- we're talking icing plays, knee-on-knee, etc.
It is the players who should be meeting over these issues. Not the GMs.
It is time for Eric Lindros, whose own career was shortened by concussion while his younger brother's was ended far too soon for the same reason, to stop walking the corridors of the NHLPA with a knife in his hand, and take a leadership role that would actually improve the sport that made him a millionaire.
Scott Stevens, where are you? You were a dealer of mostly clean but still concussive hits like few others, and ended up on the wrong end of head trauma. Why not help the game that set you up for life?
Adam Deadmarsh? Jeff Beukeboom? Pat LaFontaine?
All good men that the NHLPA should be looking to hire, rather than combing the autoworkers' scrap heap for the Buzz Hargroves of the world.
This isn't the NHL's problem as much as it is the players', because something has to change. The game has reached a critical point.
Every season there is an incremental increase in the size of players, the speed at which they travel, and thus, the force of impact when players collide. Yet, the space between a player's brain and the inside wall of his skull has not changed since Newsy Lalonde's day.
You can suspend all you want, but until players begin to take some ownership of their game and became part of the solution, serious injuries will continue. Come contract time, don't they always tell us "We are the product?"
Then make the product safer, and quit waiting around for the NHL, who so many players quietly believe could not run a two-car parade, to come up with a solution to your problem.
"We know what we're doing on hits from behind, and we know what we're doing (when opponents are in) more vulnerable positions," Iginla told me two years ago. "It's not that fast. Guys know what they're doing on 90-plus percent of the hits."
It's time for the players to step up to the plate.
What do you think they'll do?
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