 |
| (above) Montreal Canadiens player Max Pacioretty suffered a horrific injury last week in an NHL game |
(left) Terry Martin wrote an article in the Edmonton Journal today about a subject he is all too familiar with, vertebae injuries in ice hockey From: Edmonton Journal
by Terry Martin
My son Jesse played hockey against Max Pacioretty in the United States Hockey League (USHL) a few years ago - we thought he was a terrific hockey player then, and a better one since turning pro.
I nearly collapsed watching him get hit by Zdeno Chara. I'm praying for his recovery.
It was late October when Jesse received a hit to the head while playing hockey for the University of Denver. The result was vertebra fractures and a spinal-cord injury. Doctors said he came within two millimetres of dying. We have since learned that only two per cent of those suffering such injuries survive, and if they do, the outcome is usually paralysis of the entire body below the neck, or death within a couple of years due to respiratory challenges.
The game of hockey is not slowing down, nor should it.
But as horrific as it sounds, and despite those who tritely suggest "our game is a dangerous one, always has been, and always will be," we are on our way to witnessing someone getting killed.
It is wrong to suggest that the integrity of the sport, or its entertainment value, will be compromised by creating reasonable and sensible rules, implemented with consistency, commitment and genuine concern for protecting players, our sons, brothers and nephews -not stats -from having their lives irrevocably changed from playing a game they love.
According to Associated Press sports writer Chris Jenkins, the death of Dale Earnhardt of NASCAR "was the wake-up call that caused a safety revolution . it was a major change for a sport that had been at the back of the pack when it came to driver safety."
And, just like NASCAR, those who decide what happens in hockey have the means to improve safety and reduce injuries significantly -today.
Unfortunately those same decisionmakers lack the desire, and the will, to act responsibly. And therein lies the tragedy -we not only have the means, but also the opportunity.
Who then among us should be surprised to learn of an all-too sudden death, over time, in hockey. Could Gary Bettman live with that tragedy?
It seems he could.
52 comments:
With all respect to Terry and Jessi Martin - and to wishing Max and Jessi an amazing recovery.
What could of Chara done? That was a very unfortunate situation in Montreal. If it happens anywhere else on the ice, Max keeps skating without even a bruise!!!
NHL, all the experts, fans around the world agreed that it was a clean hit, no intention, 0 history on the player. (except folks in Montreal, of course)
If legal hits result in broken necks, paralyzed players or down the road in a death, then there is something wrong with the sport.
I doubt anything will ever be done until insurance companies say "hockey is too dangerous" and won't insure the players.
I agree with DG.
Hockey knows it has a problem with excess violence but refuses to deal with it effectively.
We can all see it, plain as day. The players are too big, too fast, too armored and too unafraid to play on the edge.
Unfortunately, someone will have to become a quadriplegic or even die on the ice before real change comes.
On a related subkect, Why do they allow bare fisted ,beat the crap out of somebody, while the refs look on? I never took my boys,when they were pre teen, to a professional hockey game because they were sensitive kids(unlike their dad)and that would have beenn very difficult on them. To say that is part of the hockey culture that we inherited from canada is a lame excuse. Football is a violent sport but it doesn't condone bare fisted slugging,nor does any other sport.
Well said Mr. Martin.
Fighting is a necessary part of the game. Part of the problem with today's NHL is fighting is scare. The league used to police itself. 10 years ago Chara would have gotten the tar beat out him, legal hit or not.
The starement"fighting is a neccessary part of the game" is pure nonsense. Bare fisted pummeling of someone in a regulated sport is by, definition, brutality.
Put on a skirt Aluum.
Some would say that since that advent of the instigator and the NHL clamping down on fighting, that cheap shots are up. Players can run around without the fear of retribution.Players are rarely accountable for their actions anymore.
put on a brain anon 6:15
How is fighting "brutality" when you have two consenting players dropping gloves? Brutality is taking a blind side run at a guy's head. I love a good beat down after a cheap hit!
Meanwhile baseball has beanballs, Throwing 95 mph chin music is ok?Every sport has a form of intimidation. Funny how the players are cool with it eh?
Fighting IS a necessary part of the game. Watch the games! When the players police themselves cheap shots are rare. When there are bunch of guys running around with no fear of getting pummeled that's when yo see the cheap shots. Wake up!
I apologize! I have it wrong. All of the sports that exist, soccer, Lacrosse,Rugby, The four differnet kinds of football basketball ,etc.,etc.,etc, they too just dont get it. If someone takes of their gloves(if they have them) and swing at a player they are thrown out and usually suspended for some games. But Pro hockey has it right and all the other sports just don't understand that when a cheap shot occurs they should have the resident goon,who could not make thhe team otherwise ,goes out and bloodies noses,breaks jaws, gives concusions etc,. all in the name of keeping the game from becoming too violent.
Maybe all of the other sports in the entire world will finally get it and each put a goon on their team .
Since it's something like 75 to 1 , could it possibly be that the 1 has it wrong.Do you think that maybe,just maybe, pro hockey has it wrong.
Wake up!!
I love when a fight breaks out at a game and people shield their eyes or run for the exits. Do you do that?
Wrong!! It's not the resident goon who needs to fight. It's anyone. But everyone is scared to be the instigator and get tossed. Goons are extinct--what games are you watching?? The LNAH??? Chimera fought Seabrook in this morning's game, and you can bet guys noticed and thought twice about laying a dirty hit after that. You obviously don't understand the sport.
Don't explain your myopic view to me ,explain it to the entire world of sports which doesn't agree with you. So one relativly small sport has it right and the entire world of sport has it wrong.
I'm anon above
Must suck to have to be a pc Soccer Mom?
Who's the entire world of sports?? Everyone who hasn't played pro hockey? Exactly. Why are non hockey types right and everyone in hockey wrong?? Sorry aluum, your argument holds no water. Keep digging though. In the meantime, go talk to someone who actually played, and quit listening to soccer players.
A vast majority of fans don't go to the games to see the hitting, they go to see the goals.
Cutting back on the hitting and the injuries would probably lead to more goals as a by-product.
Regarding fighting which is unquestionably popular among novice hockey fans. 97% of the fights in the ECHL & AHL are staged early in the game and have nothing to do with enforcing "the code" or personal grudges. Its almost like, "We better get the obligatory fight out of the way so the fans get their $15 worth."
Anon 9:45 I played the game.
Do beer leagues count?
Right on, Aluum-hockey is an international game and where is the fighting justified? NORTH AMERICAN PRO AND JUNIOR. They don't do it in college, they don't do it in Europe, they don't do it in the Olympics, hell, they don't even do it in the NHL playoffs!!! So the "it's pat of hockey argument holds NO water. The NHL will never be taken seriously until the fighting issue is handled.
And yes, I have been playing hockey for 40 years.
To the two gentlemen who said they played. Just curious if you guys played professionally?
They don't take hockey seriuosly in Canada?
Anon 2:21
No, just div.1 high school back east, but I sure got knocked on my ass many times so I know what a good clean teeth rattling check feels like.
My favorite player for the pios is 24 Ryder because he clealny delivers the goods .the team needs anoher,or two, Ryder types.
NHL just came out with figures stating that 17% of concussions come from "illegal hits",44% came from "legal" hits.8% of concussions came from fights. Go to NHL.com for article.
AAnon who played for 40 years--obviously these other leagues, international etc., who don't allow bare fisted fighting must be completly out of control with blood flowing,broken bonds all over and record breaking concussions since there are no goons out there to "protect the code"
Ice dancing - that's the ticket for those more sensitive types.
That's a joke boy.
It's 2011, and I think hockey will be gone from the game in another 10years. I used to be pro-fighting in hockey. Loved it. Bought the whole Don Cherry Canadian culture of accountability argument about fighting being part of the game.
Then I evolved a bit by listening to guys like Dryden and Gretzky, who saw fighting as un-needed, and I also realized that Olympic hockey is better than any other kind of hockey and doesn't need fighting any more than the other team sports do.
If hockey ever wants out of the fringes of American sports, they will one day get rid of fighting, and only a few will really miss it. They can go be boxing fans.
I remember when bar owners railed and complained when the non-smoking laws were passed. Surprisingly, most of them were pleasantly suprised when new patrons arrived who just didn't go to smoky bars before the rules were passed.
I think there are huge amounts of potential new hockey fans that might come to hockey when fighting is someday outlawed, and the sport will be seen as more than a sideshow.
With that logic you wouldn't think MMA would be a billion dollar industry, eh?
NHL meetings in Fla are focusing on hits/checks to the head. They have bigger fish to fry than fighting. One Gm said "players have no choice when they are checked in the head, they have a choice to fight"
UGOTITSWAM--WELL SAID!
Does Gretzky forget Semenko riding shotgun for him? No one even looked at Gretzky :-)
C'mon Swami, for every Gretzky that doesn't care for fighting there are 10ex or current players that know it's value in the game and it's value to the club dynamic. Let's not confuse the pre-ordained "staged" heavyweight fight with a fight based on passion and emotion. As far as attracting fans, do you ever see someone run for a cup of coffee when a scrap is going on.Are you telling me you didn't like the Battle of Alberta games back in the day?
The Olympic Tournament and the grind of a full regular season schedue are two totally different animals as well.
In addition to “Cement Head” the Great One also had Marty McSorley protecting his back.
Gretzky Talks About the Role of the Enforcer
___________________________________
"Let me tell you how it works and this is for people who watch games and sometimes don't understand or realize. There's alot of tough guys in the National Hockey League. You look at a guy who plays in Toronto, Darcy Tucker. He plays the game the same way, every single night against every single player. But the guys who become the most dangerous are the guys who aren't really tough. And believe me, it's known inside hockey who the tough guys are and who aren't, who aren't the honest guys. When you have a guy like Georges Laraque on your team you're not going to get those extra liberties taken at guys like Malkin and Crosby. Sure, the tough guys are going to play them physical and sure, the guys that show up every day to play hard are going to play the same way. But what Georges Laraque eliminates are guys that aren't tough taking runs at guys like Sidney Crosby".
That's a very good take on the nuances of the role of the tough guy. Lost on those who played as high as D1 High school :-)
I loved the battle of Alberta. Loved Semenko. Loved the '74 Flyers brawling their way to the Cup and fighting people in the stands. Loved all of it then, and I still admit to a primal thrill watching fighting today.
However, like many things in life, I've evolved somewhat in that the intellectual argument against fighting as intrinsic -- the purity of the hard-hiitting but skilled game we see in the Olympics now overides the visceral thrill of fighting for me. Hockey players would adjust very quickly as they always do when their paycheck depends on following the rules.
I see the marketing opportunity for reaching new audiences by eliminating fighting as clearly outweighing the risks of losing the hardcore fighting enthusiasts. Look at how far the NFL has come with women for example, and they don't have fighting.
Hockey is stuck in the old days in terms of marketing. We need to attract new people to the game, and I see fighting as more of a headwind than a tailwind.
It's 2011, and we need new ideas.
Swami- do you think "Olympic" hockey intensity can be carried over an 82 game schedule? I say no possible way. Guys take shifts or even nights off over the course of the regular season. Olympic hockey is great because it's balls to walls for what two weeks? Fights happen for the right reasons at the right times. Are you gonna doubt Mr Hockey himself? :-)
Maybe it’s because hockey players really aren’t very good fighters. All the fans get is a sloppy schoolyard fight. Sure, Semenko fought Ali but in the grand scheme of things hockey players can’t cut it in boxing and I’ve never seen a professional hockey player move on to MMA.
I love Gordie Howe too, but he played from 1940s to the 1980 back when hockey had far less competition for the entertainment dollar then it does now.
Today, there a 1000 channel HDTVs, satellites, cable, TIVO, DVDs, streaming media, the internet, evolved video games, xtreme sports and other passive and participatory sports and entertainment all competing for the eyeballs of sports fans that weren't around in Gordie's day.
Hockey is moving further and further from the center of sports culture than it ever has, and we need new ideas to keep it from sliding into total irrelevance as a gate-only attraction.
American society has also evolved a great deal from 30 years ago, too. For example, as a society, we have reduced dangerous behaviors such as drinking and driving, smoking and bullying that were far more commonplace 30 years ago. We have less tolerance for these things in mainstream America than we used to. I think America sees fighting now as out of the mainstream value system. Boxing is irrelvant now, replaced by MMA and fake wrestling for the core male audience who craves combat, but most people lump hockey in with MMA.
My point is that times change, and hockey is losing right now. Many people we hope to attract think of the game as a violent sideshow.
We need to change and evolve.
Ironic that media outlets that normally don't give hockey the time of day, show EVERY big/dangerous hit. They also have no problem showing a good fight or too.
Additionally, hasn't Bettman been squawking that ratings are great? They love when that stuff gets on tv. Even "bad" press is good.
Many times I have heard the disparaging remark "I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out".
As Swam states very well, Pro hockey has to expand it's audience. Fighting is a big turn off for a large segment of potential fans. There is a relativly small dedicated fan base that loves it but that group is not large enough to sustain the game long term at a high level of success.You dedicated fight supporters should rethink your position . The cold hard fact that you don't want to accept is that growth is stagnent. If you are not growing in a market ecconemy you are declining. Staying even is declining. Not good.
Rethink my position? LMAO, You pompous ass! I like hockey and I like fighting in hockey.I'll enjoy both(for now ;-))
anon 10:36
Wonderful!! anon 10:26
a real class guy! Unfortunatly your statement clearly illustrates the trouble pro hockey in now in.
lol, yep it's 10:36's fault!
Where is the resident pugilist Twister?
I agree that we need to change and evolve. I don't think hockey will ever win over fans of the Ice Capades. What should the target be? Why not that ever popular 18-35 y.o. male. And what events are they trending toward? MMA and the WWE.
If true, wouldn't the answer be to have more fighting rather than less?
That's a joke son.
Memo to ISay- must cater to the soccer moms.
Post a Comment