NHL executives have been working overtime to protect its players for the upcoming NHL season.
Here’s what I’ve heard:
They talked about beefed up padding.
They tossed crash test dummies (not the musical group) in several directions at once.
They created deflection areas using spring-loaded systems and curved glass (thus allowing “a player to deflect off a surface rather than hit it solid”).
Termination points, such as benches, will be rounded.
They shrank “the size of the camera hole in the corner boards by about an inch” so noses, at least the occasional nostril, wouldn’t get ripped.
It all sounds pretty exciting, except for one thing. The NHL game won’t get any safer while players continue to grow taller, wider, heavier and faster, and play on the same-sized ice surface as Canadian and American Junior hockey and my 50-plus men’s league.
["When small, I didn't mind a small ice pad": photo G.Harrison, 1950s]
The NHL squeezes too many big players onto a small ice surface. The league should either continue the evolution of the game - from nine on nine to four on four - or expand the ice surface by 10% in length and width, or more.
Please click here to read about the evolution of the game from seven skaters per team to five and the growth of the players in overall size and weight.
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