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Concussions, Violence in Hockey, Oh My!

Posted February 07, 2012 1:33 PM by HUSH

Perhaps no other sport breeds toughness and togetherness like the sport of hockey. A grueling 82-game schedule with four lengthy playoff rounds make teammates brothers. They eat together, shower together, fight for each other, play pranks on each other and, oh yeah, play hockey too.

And, if they can do enough of that, history will be made. The Stanley Cup is considered the most revered trophy in sports.

The most revered man of Canadian hockey. I am completely serious. via Cycle Like Sedins

Have I earned your hockey sympathy yet dearest reader?

Recently hockey's reputation has been marred by concussions. The games' best player, Sidney Crosby, has played only eight games during the past 13 months due to two legal, brain-rattling hits delivered during games.

Also contributing to hockey's concussion conundrum is the sport's esteemed history of fighting and brawling, with giants of men delivering boxer-like punches while balanced on knives stuck to their feet. (You'd think the whole 'sliding around on blades thing' would be the most dangerous part of hockey; it's not.)

So, what happens to the concussed hockey player? How do teams address such serious medical issues? And, is this violence really necessary to keep hockey interesting?

The Concussion

As stated, the easiest methods to acquire a concussion is a hard, perhaps dangerous, body check delivered during games, or by squaring off with one of hockey's toughest goons.

While there seems to be no standard for identifying a concussion, it is agreed that a concussion literally moves and reorients the brain within the skull. Severe damage can occur if the brain suffers tissue damage during the impact.

Not pictured: An onomatopoeic 'SPLAT!' via Wikimedia

Common concussion symptoms include loss of consciousness, amnesia, feeling pressure in the head or neck, memory loss, loss of motor skills, vision sensitivity and emotional outbursts and instability. Concussions can ruin lives. Forever. This doctor offers a brief overview of a concussion.

After a player sustains a suspected concussion, teammates and officials direct him to his locker room where medical trainers and a team physician are awaiting. The player is placed in a quiet, well-lit room for no less than 15 minutes, during which a standardized medical test called SCAT2 is administered by the team doctor.

Pop quiz! via Backhand Shelf

Because some of the questions and simple tasks on the above SCAT card can be difficult to achieve anyhow (and remember, we're talking about pro athletes here, not mathletes), the results are compared to answers given by the player in a non-concussed state. The team's doctor determines if the player has a concussion or whether he can return to the game. Due to the tenacity of the player and a sense of team responsibility, it's not uncommon for players to hide symptoms to return to the game even if they have a traumatic brain injury.

Unfortunately, concussion testing is subjective and varied greatly across individuals. Recovery from a concussion is rest, and perhaps the occasional aspirin to deal with soreness and headaches. Concussions typically go away on their own, but it can take weeks or months. Furthermore, having a concussion means susceptibility to future brain injuries, and perhaps chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease which is sustained from consistent head trauma. It resembles dementia or Alzheimer's and can begin appearing within months of a head injury. CTE leads to depression, confusion, memory loss and aggression. This shows that concussions aren't just temporary injuries, but can lead to serious future health problems.

The Causes

Your average NHL player is more likely to become concussed from a body check-a completely legal and encouraged form of defense-than by duking it out with their hands. In a typical NHL match, more than 20 hits are usually accounted for, yet fights average less than once per game (just .44 fights/game).

The most taxing hits take place when a one player awkwardly checks another into the boards, as seen in this video of the Montreal Canadiens vs. the Boston Bruins taken in March of 2011. And while the Habs fan inside me screams that Zdeno Chara, the 6'9" monster defender for the Bruins, deserves to be punished for such an egregious hit, his body check was legal and probably an accident.

He's 7' tall with knives on his feet. What could you possibly do? via Yahoo Sports

However, there is a fine line between legal hits and illegal hits in the NHL and it's a grey area that players cannot even define. The NHL has taken significant steps towards curbing injurious hits the past few years.

Yet the NHL has done very little about fighting. While the league may be able to justify the brutality of checking as fundamental to the game of hockey, fighting is tougher to condone. Even some hardcore hockey fans find fighting detracting from a beautiful game.

In the summer of 2010, the Sports Legacy Institute received the brain of NHL legend Bob Probert. Probert is considered one of the best NHL fighters ever, though he was remarkably short of skill in other hockey vocations and otherwise considered a useless hockey defender. STI studied Porbert's brain and determined he had CTE. Probert admitted he suffered many concussions during his years as an NHL enforcer, and occasionally hid symptoms or played through them. CTE was also discovered posthumously in the brain of Derek Boogaard in 2011, a player who had overdosed on depression medication.

The Prevention

The NHL now employs a former player by the name of Brendan Shanahan, who suffered multiple concussions during his playing career, to deliver fines and suspensions to players who have checked opponents recklessly. It seems to be working.

Yet Shanahan does not deliver supplemental discipline for fighting, a notorious source of concussions and possibly CTE. How does the NHL believe in such hypocrisy, where checking is scrutinized yet physical assaults are not?

Opinion

Consider the psychological role of fighting. It remains an intimidation technique solely, whereas the body check is a hockey play. Intimidation is a powerful factor in hockey games, enough to serve as a deterrent for players who might throw a harder body check in an attempt to injure a skilled opponent.

Consider the psychological role of fighting. It remains an intimidation technique solely, whereas the body check is a hockey play. Yet intimidation is a powerful factor in hockey games, enough to serve as a deterrent for players who might throw a harder body check in an attempt to injure a skilled opponent.

Fighting needs to remain within the identity of hockey. European leagues penalize fighting heavily, and opponents tend to use heavy body checks, stick swinging and tripping to intimidate opponents. This type of play is dangerous, and using fighting as a means of vigilante justice only helps to ensure players won't have to face deliberately injurious plays while trying to score a goal, the real reason of the game.

Resources

Wikipedia - Fighting in ice hockey

PubMed Health - Concussion

New York Times - In Debate About Fighting in Hockey, Medical Experts Weigh In

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Guru
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#1

Re: Concussions, Violence in Hockey, Oh My!

02/08/2012 10:00 AM

Just a quick comment. Chara's check was NOT legal as evidenced by the 5 minute penalty assessed. but that asside the injury as caused by the insane design of the glass along the boards there. His head hit the edge of the glass.

Reduce the equipment allowed, reduce the injuries. When people feel invulnerable because they are dressed in armor they take more chances. If I believe I won't be hurt coliding with an opponent at 20 mph I will do it. But if I know that I might injury myself doing that I am unlikely to make the attempt.

From personal experience, in high school, we had rugby teams (no protective equipment allowed) and American football teams (gadiatorial armor protection). Yet there were many more injuries on the football teams than on the rugby teams. Go figure.

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#2
In reply to #1

Re: Concussions, Violence in Hockey, Oh My!

02/08/2012 10:17 AM

@Apothicus...

As something so dear to me, I'm inclined to agree. Pacioretty was an integral part of the Habs late season run, and Chara's "I didn't know where I was on the ice" excuse was pathetic. Chara received a game misconduct too. But, the hit didn't warrant further discipline, meaning the misconduct went too far, regardless of how blatantly reckless the hit was.

Now we get into the politics of the NHL, which is suspect at best. *cough*Coyotes*cough*

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