NHL General Managers Discuss Concussions

Added on Mar 14, 2011 by J Merrill in

NHL

The General Managers began three days of meetings today in Florida, and concussions were the first on the bill. After the meeting the league made everyone aware of how seriously they would be taking concussions in the National Hockey League. We also got a good look at the variety of opinions surrounding the increasingly more important issue.

The General Managers were presented with numbers from a 2 year study that the NHL ran, and shown a video of all of the concussions, as an introduction to the meeting. According to the study, 44 percent of concussions this season have resulted from legal hits, 26 percent from accidental hits, 17 percent from illegal hits and 8 percent from fighting. The cause of 5 percent couldn’t be determined.

NHL Commissioner Bettman made it clear how seriously they were taking this issue, and said there aren’t no straight forward fixes. He said “There’s no one single thing causing concussions. There is no magic bullet to deal with this. I know that it’s an emotional, intense subject, particularly for our fans. We get it. But dealing with this issue is not something you can do whimsically or emotionally. You really have to understand what’s going on.”

The other side of the debate is punishment, and Bettman said they will make those adjustments in the off season. He did make it clear that he supported the decision not to suspend or fine Chara. He continued “I took a poll of the general managers, and overwhelmingly they believe that the right decision was made in that case, and that no supplemental discipline should have been imposed.”

Bettman also reiterated that the NHL’s concerns were the same as Air Canada’s, and he said he wasn’t concerned about any blow back. He said “I believe the people at Air Canada are fans of the game, and their concerns about player safety are no different than our concerns about player safety.”

The Canadiens’ Max Pacioretty sustained a severe concussion last week, and the Penguins Sidney Crosby practiced today for the first time since he was sidelined in January because of a concussion. These injuries are darkening the sport if you ask some fans, and sponsor Air Canada came out and said they would reconsider where they would spend their marketing dollars with regards to sponsoring the NHL.

Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman had a unique look at the issue. He said “It’s kind of odd that we’re talking about rules to slow things down. Players are bigger athletes. They’re faster and stronger. The equipment is designed to shoot the puck harder and faster. But now we’re going the other way and looking at, ‘OK, how do we make it slower?”

One idea is to ban head shots all together. Crosby said it was only partially dealing with the issue. He said There are times when there is going to be accidental contact, and how do you deal with that? If someone targets the head, then yeah, I think that should be banned. … It’s whether or not it’s intentional. Sometimes that’s tough to really know when you’re talking about a fast game like hockey.”