Boca Raton, FLA. - “... There was no appetite among NHL general managers for a sweeping ban on contact to players’ heads... they do, however, plan to put more teeth into charging and boarding penalties in an effort to cut down on injuries."
Ottawa Sens GM Bryan Murray said, “We want to apply the rules that are in the book more adamantly... the rule in the book is fine. We’ve just been more reluctant maybe to call it to the letter of the law the way we want to re-emphasize.” (Mar. 16, The London Free Press)
And in my humble opinion (how could it be otherwise), the number of concussions related to legal hits, fights, and illegal hits will gradually continue to rise, even after the glass and boards around rinks are covered in something very forgiving (bales of hay?), repeat offenders are forced to play in old rubber boots and the current NHL rule book re-emphasized.
Why? Too many rats in the box. Too many big players on the ice. And they’re getting bigger all the time.
In an earlier post I mentioned that the average size of a power forward in the 1860s (during hockey’s very early stages) was 3 ft. 9 in. tall, 94 pounds. In 1970 - 71, Normie “Big Guy” Ullman, a centerman for the Toronto Maple Leafs, stood 5 ft. 10 in. and weighed 185 pounds.
Many of today’s players are bigger than Eric Lindros (listed at 6 ft. 5 in. tall and 228 pounds in the early 1990s), are twice as fast and eat handfuls of raw meat between shifts. Inside an infantry division’s protective gear, a power forward at a typical NHL game would remind fans of a tank on the loose.
Coincidentally, the increase in size of goaltenders and their equipment is almost no different.
I read somewhere that Tubby Mullard, all 4 ft. 5 in. and 98 pounds of him, the 1890 winner of the first Venison Trophy (a frozen hind-quarter, and the precursor of today’s Vezina Trophy), wore nothing more in net than his father’s plaid shirt, his older sister’s ball glove and Eaton’s Christmas catalogues strapped around each shin.
["Tubby's teammates prepare for battle beside a 4-ft. high stove"]
By the mid-1960s, goaltenders were a bit bigger.
Lorne “Gump” Worsley (1929 - 2007), a goalie of some renown (he shared the Vezina Trophy with Charlie Hodge in 1966, with Rogatien Vachon in 1968, and played in the NHL All-Star Game in 1965 and 1968), stood 5 ft. 7 in. tall (amazingly!), weighed 180 pounds soaking wet, and wore padded leather protective gear on all but two parts of his body, one being his head - the size of a ripe honeydew.
Today, the average goalkeeper is over 7 feet tall and weighs 800 pounds when fully dressed in protective gear.
This trend toward taller, heavier, faster, more-heavily protected players will likely continue for the rest of this century and culminate in more concussions per season than can be counted as players bounce off boards and one another with willful abandon. All H-E-Double hockey sticks will break loose after the introduction of jet-packs in 2030.
So, what can be done concerning all this inevitable damage to the brainpans of NHL players?
I’m glad you asked. Stay tuned.
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Please click here to read Bits and Pieces: PT 1 - The NHL has a ‘small’ problem
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