“After a week that saw the NHL pounded on the public relations front, the league came out swinging Monday with a five-point plan to improve player safety.” (March 15, The London Free Press)
Concussions are a big problem (PR-wise; and otherwise as well, i.e., if one gives half a thought to players’ brainpans). And, in my humble opinion, the NHL’s five-point plan falls short of solving the problem.
The number of concussions related to legal hits (the cause of 44% of 80 concussions in the current season), fights (8%), and illegal hits (17%) will gradually continue to rise, even after the glass and boards are covered with sponge and repeat offenders are hung by their thumbs from the back of the team bus.
And why do I say concussions will rise?
Easy. Psych 20 easy. B.F. Skinner easy. There are too many rats in the box. Big rats. And they’re getting bigger all the time.
Let’s go back in time for a minute to the 1970 - 71 season. Normie Ullman played center for the Toronto Maple Leafs and tallied 34 goals and 51 assists. He stood 5’ 10” tall and weighed 185 pounds. The guy appeared huge among his fellow players.
["Normie Ullman had a few good seasons with The Leafs"]
Why, when he entered the Leaf dressing room for the first time during the 1967 - 68 season, Davie Keon welcomed him with a big hug (well, kind of a hug; more like a slap on the backside, completely illegal in the day) and said, “It’s nice to have you here, big guy.”
“Big guy.” At 5’ 10” and 185 pounds. Imagine that. He’d be considered kinda puny by today’s standards, wouldn’t he? You could actually lose Normie Ullman in a modern hockey dressing room. He’d be smaller than some kid’s triceps.
Go back farther in time and players were even smaller by today’s standards. I’ve heard it said that during the game’s infancy (e.g., in the 1860s, when the game was called “Smackafrozenhorseturd” - always expressed in one word), the average size of the players was 3’ 9” tall. The first player to surpass 4 feet was Moons Malone, aka Moons the Goon, or simply The Goon. He earned 3 cents per game, whittled his own sticks and signed his first contract with an X.
[“Member of the miniscule Montreal Maroons, 1924 - 1938”]
[“Babe Siebert - actual size!!”]
Well, times have changed. And having a five-point plan in the NHL isn’t going to cut it if concussions are to be reduced.
More hard hits to follow.
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Please click here to read an earlier episode of Bits and Pieces.
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