Ice hockey - the dark side of the game: Part 2

As many football fans will know, tackling is an integral part of the game. However, there is to certain extent what you can get away with, in terms of severity. It's the same in ice hockey with hits to opponents. The league have set out rules to reduce the number of injuries caused to legs and arms. However, there is one area of the body that is most at risk - the head. We are watching a game where people's heads are targeted for hits and the consequences can be dire. It is the plague of contact sports for our time - concussion
Looking back at some clips of many of the greatest hitters in NHL history, some of them were dirty, but the rules were different. However, you wouldn't get the likes of Rob Blake, Cam Neely or Denis Potvin taking somebodies head off. Many will say that the greatest hitter of all-time is Scott Stevens. I will agree with them on this, but he has been know to give out concussions in his time. Here is a list of some of his most infamous victims:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCeU1uec86g&feature=related (Skip to 06:24)

• Vyacheslav Kozlov - Game 2, 1995 Stanley Cup Final
• Daymond Langkow - Game 2, 2000 Eastern Conference Final
• Eric Lindros - Game 7, 2000 Eastern Conference Final
• Ron Francis - Game 3, 2001 Eastern Conference Quarter Final
• Paul Kariya - Game 6, 2003 Stanley Cup Final

I am in no way saying Scott Stevens was a dirty player; at least he didn't try to copy the example of Marty McSorley. In fact, his hits could change the game entirely. However, the Paul Kariya hit is infamous, mainly for the fact that even though he lay motionless on the ice, Kariya went for treatment, returned minutes later and scored. For Eric Lindros though, that was one of many concussions he suffered, which could be a reason why he chose to retire in 2007.
However, that was the past. Let's turn to the present. Nowadays, head shots and concussions are far too common. One of the major ones came in a game on March 7th 2010 between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Boston Bruins. With just over 5 minutes of the game left, the Penguins' Matt Cooke delivered a hit to the head of the Bruins' Marc Savard. Cooke went unpunished, but this incident brought about a change to the rules and stricter punishments for blindside hits. Though he did return for the Bruins in the playoffs that year, Savard's career has been dogged by injuries and the likelihood of him playing again is near zero.
The Savard/Cooke incident did raise some headlines, but many more have been since the start of last season. On March 8th 2011, the Boston Bruins' Zdeno Chara hit Max Pacioretty of the Montreal Canadiens, resulting in Pacioretty's head colliding with the stanchion at the end of the bench; he lay motionless for several minutes before being taken off. The next day, it was revealed that he had fractured his 4th cervical vertebra and developed a severe concussion. Chara received a 5-minute major penalty and a game misconduct but that was all. However, Montreal police announced that they would investigate, although they claim that it wasn't down to public pressure (which there was a lot of). Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper even raised the issue in parliament and Air Canada threatened to withdraw their sponsorship of the NHL if the league didn't take action.
This however isn't the most infamous/publicized case of a concussion in the NHL. It all started on 1st January 2011, the 2011 NHL Winter Classic at Heinz Field, Pittsburgh. It was the match up everybody was hoping for - the Pittsburgh Penguins vs. the Washington Capitals - Sidney Crosby vs. Alexander Ovechkin. This outdoor game was the dream match up that everyone wanted to see. However, for Crosby it became a nightmare. Near the end of the second period, he got hit in the head by Dave Steckel and collapsed to the ice for a moment, slowly getting to his feet. He decided to feature in the Penguins' following game on January 5th against the Tampa Bay Lightning, but he got hit in the head again, this time from Victor Hedman. On January 7th, it was revealed that he had a mild concussion. At the time, he was coming off the end of a 25 game point streak and had 66 points in 41 games - he was leading the points tally by 10 points and it took over two weeks for somebody to overtake him.
Then the questions started. When would he return? On February 10th he said "I'm expecting to play this year." By early March, still nothing. Would he be fit for the playoffs? "Probably not back in the first round" was the response and the Penguins were dumped out at that point. So when? Dan Bylsma, the Penguins coach, said "There's no timetable for his return." He needed to be "cleared for contact", but would he be ready by October 6th, the first game of the 2011-12 season? In a word, no. There were promising signs though, the fact he was training regularly and could take part in contact halfway through October. But, there was "nothing new to report". Eventually though, on November 21st Crosby returned for the Penguins' home game against the New York Islanders. The eyes of the hockey world were all upon him. It was the most eagerly anticipated return since Mario Lemieux's comeback game for the Penguins in December 27th 2000. In his comeback game, Lemieux got 1 goal and 3 assists; Crosby got 2 goals and 2 assists. To be honest, I did not expect anything different from him; that was always going to happen. However, in the eighth game of his comeback (a home game against the Boston Bruins on December 5th), concussion-like symptoms returned and he is even now "out indefinitely".
Other players, who have suffered concussion-like symptoms this season, have included Milan Michalek (who collided with his teammate Erik Karlsson), Daniel Alfredsson, Claude Giroux, Colby Armstrong, Ryan Miller and Chris Pronger. Armstrong played the following game after his hit to the head, but didn't tell the trainers or doctors about it. Miller, goalie for the Buffalo Sabres, was hit twice, first by Boston's Milan Lucic and then by Jordin Tootoo of the Nashville Predators in his comeback game; Lucic escaped suspension from the league, but Tootoo did serve a 2 game suspension. Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff described it as "a joke" and "open season" for hits to goalies. Pronger suffered severe post concussion symptoms and is out for the rest of this season and playoffs.
This is a problem for the entire sport. I know that I was impatient in wanting to see Sidney Crosby return, because he is the best player in the league; he is the posterboy of the NHL. But, I understand that he was not 100% fit. Will he ever be in the form he was in prior to that moment at Heinz Field again in his career? I don't know. The sport needs him though. Did the media only make a big deal out of the issue because of Crosby? No. This has been going on for years; Crosby just became the face of it, that's all. To all those who think that it's nothing to be concerned about, the truth is this - "You cannot cheat a concussion..."

Ice hockey - the dark side of the game: Part 1

When I was watching Sports Personality of the Year recently, it got to that point of the evening when they took a look back to remember all those who had passed away over the last year. The notable inclusions were Sir Henry Cooper, Smoking Joe Fraser, Marco Simoncelli, Dan Wheldon, Socrates, Seve Ballesteros and Gary Speed. The latter two had a pretty big impact on me, being a fan of both golf and football. However, there were some that they forgot which had an even greater impact on me, from the world of ice hockey. What happened was without doubt the worst summer for the sport off the ice. And that's the worst part, the fact they happened in rapid succession.
It all started back on 13th May after Derek Boogaard of the New York Rangers was found dead in his apartment in Minneapolis. It was believed that at the time he died from an overdose of alcohol and oxycodone, which he was taking whilst recovering from a concussion, but had grown dependent on them. The next was Rick Rypien on 15th August, who had recently signed for the newly reformed Winnipeg Jets. He was found dead at his home in Crowsnest Pass, Alberta. His death was confirmed as suicide, but unlike Boogaard it was revealed he had been suffering from depression for over ten years. The next major death was that of a fellow enforcer like Boogaard and Rypien; Wade Belak had just retired from the game, but was found dead in a hotel room in Toronto on August 31st. Police treated it as suicide, but his family believed that his death was accidental. Like Rypien, it was revealed that Belak had suffered from depression. All three of them were diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy and extra concerns were raised because of their role as enforcers. This is an issue for all contact sports and there needs to be more done either by the league or players' association to try and prevent further incidents. The hockey world was in mourning for those three and everybody thought that it couldn't get worse, but unfortunately it didn't...
On 7th September, the KHL (Kontinental Hockey League) team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl were flying to Minsk for their first game of the season. Unfortunately, the plane they were on failed to take off before the end of the runway and when it eventually did it crashed into a tower mast. Eyewitness reports described it "bursting into flames" after hitting the mast and "rolling to the left" before crashing on the riverbank of the Tunoshna River. 44 people, including the whole team, were killed; only the flight engineer survived. Investigations have been carried out into determining the cause of the crash and it was put down to pilot error and mechanical malfunction. This incident made headlines around the world, even here in the UK where there were similarities to the Munich air disaster in 1958. Amongst those in the crash were coach Brad McCrimmon (an assistant coach the previous year with the Detroit Red Wings), Stefan Liv (the 2008 Swedish Player of the Year and a gold medalist at the Winter Olympics in 2006), Pavol Demitra (a three-time NHL All-Star), Josef Vasicek (a Stanley Cup winner with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006) and many others with NHL experience. A memorial service was held at the team's home arena and approximately 100,000 people attended; many players were remembered by their former teams by having their players wear commemorative patches or retiring their jersey number. The NHL game on October 13th between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals was dedicated to the team, especially due to the fact it featured Russians Evgeni Malkin and Alexander Ovechkin. Both teams wore special patches on their jerseys, which they signed and auctioned off to raise money for the families of the victims.
These death shocked the whole hockey world, but it is important to take into account that they'll never be forgotten. You may be an enforcer on the ice, but you may be completely underestimated off it. Players who suffer from depression need to know that there is somebody that they can talk to. And, if/when Lokomotiv Yaroslavl return and win another title, it could be the greatest comeback in sporting history...