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[hockeygod]

QMJHL: Océanic mock Montreal for playing the trap (video)

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/juniorhockey/blog/buzzing_
the_net/post/QMJHL-Oc-anic-mock-Montreal-for-playing
-the-tra?urn=juniorhockey-335548

By Neate Sager Yahoo Sports March 22 2011

Earlier in the season, Quebec Remparts head coach Patrick Roy created a stir

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/juniorhockey/blog/buzzing_the_net/post/
Patrick-Roy-not-a-fan-of-defensive-hockey-in-the?urn=juniorhockey-282193

by complaining about a disproportionate amount of dull defensive hockey in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Thursday, Rimouski Océanic head coach Clément Jodoin (pictured) took bemoaning that scourge of creative hockey, the neutral-zone trap, to another level.

Off a centre-ice faceoff against the Montreal Juniors, captain Félix Lefrançois knocked the puck back toward his own zone. It quickly became apparent that if Montreal coach-GM Pascal Vincent's tactics were not attacking on the forecheck, the Océanic were not going to attack offensively, either.

Defencemen Étienne Boutet and Jérôme Gauthier-Leduc and left wing Patrick Delisle-Houde leisurely passed the puck back and forth 16 times as an apparent protest. Finally, the point having been made, apparently, Delisle-Houde tried to send a pass up the boards. The well-drilled Juniors, predictably, intercepted it.

Was that orchestrated? No one's ever heard of a breakout play that called for 16 passes. It looked like something out of a bad soccer game. The French-language sports network RDS has had some fun with it. All this needed was Kent Brockman mumbling, "Holds it … holds it" with the announcer next to him losing his mind.

http://www.comicbeat.com/videos/Cartoon_Videos/Soccer_Riot_-_The_Simpsons

The more powerful Juniors won the game 4-2, but Jodoin's tweak was winning. Major junior hockey is part of the entertainment business, after all.

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I don't know how to embed URL's, so excuse this attempt…!
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Dean most worked. Make sure you put a space after the link address.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

MCKENZIE: TIME FOR JUNIOR HOCKEY TO GET WITH HEADSHOT PROGRAM

BOB MCKENZIE TSN 3/22/2011

It was interesting to read Allan Maki's story in The Globe and Mail on Tuesday which reported that the Western Hockey League has documented more concussions this season – a total of almost 100 – than the NHL's current tally of 80-plus.

We shouldn't be surprised, really.

Boys will be boys, after all, and unbridled emotion – coupled with a higher degree of inexperience – would probably explain it.

But for the righteously indignant amongst fans and media who are ultra-incensed that the NHL has not seen fit to seriously consider a universal head-checking penalty – where any hit to the head is deemed an illegal hit, punishable by at least a two minute minor penalty – perhaps it's time to turn their good intentions on junior hockey.

The NHL is at the peak of the hockey pyramid and it's obvious the risk factors and danger levels are going to be inherently higher than in junior hockey – and rightfully so.

Only one of Canada's three major junior leagues – the Ontario Hockey League – currently has a head-checking penalty.

The WHL and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League do not.

When you consider the majority of players who graduate from Canada's three junior leagues will not make a long-term living playing the game professionally, the WHL and QMJHL would do well to ask themselves, "Hasn't the time come to get with the program?"

OHL attendance is strong, It continues to develop elite level players for the NHL. The fabric of the OHL game doesn't look as though it's been torn apart because of a rule that should be accepted as the bare minimum in any hockey league where the players don't make their living playing the game.

No one should be naive enough to think a head-checking penalty alone will eliminate concussions. The concussion epidemic at all levels of hockey is far more complex than that. But for a bunch of 16 to 20-year-old kids, most of whom will only ever see the NHL by watching it on television or buying a ticket to a game?

Don't you think it's kind of outrageous that more isn't being done in junior hockey across Canada?

The numbers would certainly suggest it.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Stranger than fiction

Daren Millard, Sportsnet March 23, 2011

The NHL is facing its Jerry Maguire moment, but it remains to be seen whether it too will lead to a change in philosophy.

The following is a transcript from a hospital visit involving a man in traction being treated for a concussion.

The athlete’s name, NHL team, agent’s name and hospital have been purposely deleted.

DOCTOR: "Do you know your name?"

PLAYER: "I uh…wait. Wait, here it comes. I have it. My name is__I play for the__. You are my son. This pretty lady is my wife. And you are…my agent!"

AGENT: "Yes!"

PLAYER: "And I gotta play this weekend, Doc. If I play in 65 per cent of the games, I make my bonus."

SON: "This is his fourth concussion. Shouldn't somebody get him to stop?"

AGENT: "Come on — it'd take a tank to stop your dad. It would take all five Super Trooper VR Warriors, right?"

SON: "&%@! @$@"

"It’s been scary this year."

"We’re looking to make (the game) safer."

"I think we’re all concerned and I hope the league is concerned."

Comments like these are not headline-making. There are many in and around the sport who would immediately write them off as being authored by bleeding hearts who have forgotten that the NHL is supposed to be fast, physical, and yes, dangerous.

But what happens when those quotes are attributed to Steven Stamkos, Gary Bettman and Prime Minister Harper?

Combine serious trepidation from the NHL’s top goal scorer, the commissioner of the NHL and a head of state and you are left with a crisis on ice.

Can you place the player in the transcript? Scott Stevens? Marc Savard or David Booth? It’s none of the above and it’s not Lindros, Kariya or Lafontaine either.

That exchange dates back to 1996 and a scene many of the appropriate age have watched over and over probably without remembering it.

Does the name Steve Remo ring a bell? He played for the Blackhawks?

He isn’t a real person. Instead, what you read was the opening scene of the movie Jerry Maguire.

That exchange led to a shift in the super agent played by Tom Cruise’s philosophy.

It cost him his job, led to love and eventually, vindication.

It all started with a concussed player lying in a hospital bed. The NHL has dealt with this scenario more often than Jerry Maguire ever did, but will it be as brave to legitimately stem the dramatic increase of brain injuries?

Concussions are receiving more attention than the NHL scoring race and continue to overshadow sensational playoff races. I admit this has plenty to do with the absence of a concussed Sidney Crosby, but if Steve Remo can inspire ethics in the world of big-money agencies, then why can’t the threatened career of the NHL’s best player.

Steve Remo is a fictitious character Hollywood used to launch the Blockbuster movie but Sidney Crosby is very real and so is the impact of hits to the head and concussions. Anybody know a good script writer for a real-life drama?

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Thank the Penguins

Mike Brophy Sportsnet March 23, 2011

With much of the head shots controversy centering on the Pens, the hockey world is taking notice.

Not that you would wish it on any team, but having the Pittsburgh Penguins as the centre of a controversy about head shots just might be a huge stroke of luck for the NHL – and for hockey.

That's because when you have the game's best player, Sidney Crosby, on the sidelines with a head injury; an owner in Mario Lemieux who is one of the best players ever to skate in the NHL causing a flap because he thinks the league isn't handling supplemental discipline properly and one of the game's most despised cheap shot artists, Matt Cooke, all employed by the same club, the hockey world tends to sit up and take notice.

In a way, it was like the perfect storm. The way things have unfolded, it's almost like it was scripted.

Sidney Crosby is back on the ice skating and will likely play again this season. That is great news. But his magical season was stopped in its tracks Jan. 5 when he was run into the boards by Tampa Bay Lightning defenceman Victor Hedman four days after he was accidentally, it appeared, hit in the head by an elbow of then-Washington Capital David Steckel. The end result was a concussion that brought Crosby's magical season to a halt. At the time of his injury he was running away with the scoring race and was easily the NHL's most valuable player.

Because it was Crosby, suddenly talk about eliminating head shots, as well as blindside hits, became all the rage. Both have been on the rise in recent years and there's been plenty of talk about what to do to control the mayhem on the ice, but Crosby's injury took discussions to new heights.

Then Lemieux writes a letter to the NHL complaining that the league is not doing enough in terms of disciplining those who purposely try to injure opponents. Although his intensions are good, Lemieux is widely criticized for being two-faced. On one hand he appears genuinely concerned about trying to clean up the game, but on the other he employs Cooke, a reckless and dangerous player who has no regard for the safety of his opponents and represents much of what is wrong with the sport.

If this scenario involved two players and the owner of the Nashville Predators or Columbus Blue Jackets, who'd notice? But this is Lemieux, Crosby and America's team, the Penguins.

Cooke's dastardly hit on New York Rangers defenceman Ryan McDonagh Sunday brought things to a boiling point. There was definitely pressure on the NHL to make a statement with the Cooke punishment and that is exactly what it did – suspending him for the remainder of the regular season, 10 games, as well as the first round of playoffs. It's not the biggest suspension handed down in league history, not by a long shot, but it was certainly more severe than the two games the NHL gave Boston's Brad Marchand for elbowing R. J. Umberger of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Penguins reaction to Cooke's suspension was encouraging. From general manager Ray Shero to coach Dan Bylsma to Cooke himself, the team has accepted the player's fate and applauded the league for taking a more influential stance. Maybe, just maybe, the fact Cooke was suspended 10 games and will lose more than $219,000 in salary will cause other players to think twice before administering a head shot.

Love him or hate him, Cooke represents a critical loss to the Penguins who are already playing without Crosby and star center Evgeni Malkin. With those three players in the lineup, Pittsburgh is a Stanley Cup contender. Without them they are long shots.

With the Penguins now having done their part to clean up the game, the league's big challenge will be how it handles the next random act of violence. The message it sent by suspending Cooke for 10 games will be lost if the next offender is let off with a light punishment.

More than anything else, the league must make a greater statement to first-time offenders such as Marchand. All players in the NHL need to know if they recklessly make contact with an opponent's head, there will be serious consequences.

Without giving them too much credit, we have the Pittsburgh Penguins to thank for the new direction the NHL is taking.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Hit convinced former Leaf Mike Van Ryn to retire

ALLAN MAKI From Wednesday's Globe and Mail Published Tuesday, Mar. 22, 2011

The man whose hockey career was cut short by injuries and concussions has a story to tell.

One night recently, one of his players, Niagara IceDogs defenceman Jesse Graham, was speeding into his own end to corral a loose puck. Chasing him was Peterborough Petes semi-trailer Derek Mathers. Graham is 16 and weighs 166 pounds; Mathers is 6 foot 2, 230 pounds.

Opting not to get splattered against the glass like a bug on a windshield, Graham dodged the collision, then skated to the bench all apologetic. What kind of hockey player avoids taking the big hit just so he can skate again?

His coach, former Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Mike Van Ryn, told Graham he did the right thing.

“I said to him, ‘You’re in a vulnerable position, try to protect yourself,’” Van Ryn recalled. “If I didn’t make a play on that puck, maybe I don’t get hurt. Maybe Tom Kostopoulos doesn’t get suspended.”

That play, that puck and Kostopoulos are all part of another Van Ryn story. It happened Nov. 10, 2009, in wham-slam fashion. Van Ryn went speeding into the Leafs’ zone to get a puck along the end boards; Kostopoulos of the Montreal Canadiens came barrelling in.

Knowing he was being chased but not thinking he was going to get head-planted, Van Ryn was rammed into the glass and suffered a concussion. Kostopoulos received a three-game suspension. The hit, combined with his wrist and knee troubles, convinced Van Ryn to retire at 31 and begin a career as an assistant coach with Niagara of the Ontario Hockey League.

It’s in his current role that Van Ryn imparts the wisdom of what he learned the hard way, that anything can happen, especially if you’re not prepared. What concerns him is if the younger players are getting the message.

“We’re seeing kids following through to the head more than ever,” Van Ryn said. “You’re seeing the kind of hits where the arms come up and the elbows come up. I also see some of my kids playing two feet off the boards, turning their backs to get a puck. I’m all for punishing the kids who are doing the hitting, but we have to teach the players how to protect themselves.”

Changing habits isn’t easy, but clearly something has to be done when the Western Hockey League acknowledges it experienced at least 97 concussions/head injuries during the 2010-11 regular season, a total that surpasses the NHL’s 80 incidents. (As for the OHL and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, neither posts its weekly injury reports on-line the way the WHL does and neither had its concussion/head injury total available Tuesday.)

To determine how best to protect the players from themselves, the WHL has formed a competition committee that will issue a report this summer. Most hockey people believe there are multiple launch points, from equipment matters to rule enforcement to tougher suspensions. But the common theme is changing player attitudes and making them more aware of consequences.

“It’s a competitive game and these are competitive guys,” said Spokane Chiefs general manager Tim Speltz, a competition committee member. “With us, we’re dealing with younger athletes so we have more responsibility than the NHL does. … We have identified that the number [of concussions] is up and we know guys want to play. Will they tell the trainer they’re hurt if they have to sit out? That’s what we have to be careful of.”

Players at the major junior level want their shot at the NHL. They understand they need to make an impression. So some take chances they shouldn’t take; they’re reckless, careless. They just don’t think anything bad will happen to them and that, insisted Van Ryn, is what got him his weeks’ worth of wooziness and headaches.

“Especially the younger guys, they still come across the middle with their head down and you can’t do that,” he said. “Things happen so quickly and the guys are bigger and people get hurt. In my case, I came back [from the Kostopoulos hit] and played and got another concussion. I just thought getting into coaching was a safer choice for my family.

“Now I try to teach these guys.”

He does that by telling them stories, like the lesson he learned from former Leafs defenceman Rob Ramage, who told his younger teammate, “This game’s about self-preservation and how long you can play it.”

“Maybe I could have taken that to heart,” Van Ryn said. “You’re hoping these kids understand that.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

NHL 'dove' Regier applauds Cooke suspension

SEAN GORDON MONTREAL— Globe and Mail Update Published Tuesday, Mar. 22, 2011

It would be entirely understandable for Buffalo Sabres GM Darcy Regier to revel in the fact he and his fellow “doves” are scoring big points in the argument regarding head shots in the NHL.

But that’s not what Regier is about – what he and allies like Pittsburgh’s Ray Shero, Carolina’s Jim Rutherford, and Montreal’s Pierre Gauthier are after is lasting change.

And the hefty suspension to the Penguins’ Matt Cooke is a further shift toward that objective, Regier said.

“(The punishment) is entirely appropriate, I applaud the NHL, and I accept that some day it might be a Buffalo Sabre who’s in that position,” Regier said after his team’s optional pre-game skate at the Bell Centre. “I think it’s a very important message . . . it will act as a deterrent not just for this individual but for the entire league.”

But it’s just one step.

Regier continued to say that it’s not sufficient to try and tame a notorious miscreant like Cooke, that the league needs to rid itself of the “cheap stuff” as a tactic and style of play.

“You have an obligation first and foremost to play hockey. Then you can play hockey in a tough and physical way,” said Regier, who is one of the NHL's leading voices in favour of curbing head injuries and dangerous play.

Sabres right winger Jason Pominville, himself the victim of a head shot from Chicago’s Niklas Hjalmarsson earlier this season (the latter got a two-game suspension), said the aspect that resonates perhaps even louder than the suspension itself within NHL dressing rooms is the fact the Penguins publicly supported the league’s crackdown.

“To see a general manager say that? It sends a message to the players but also to everyone across the league,” Pominville said.

The 28-year-old sniper, who admits he likely returned too soon from the concussion he suffered when Hjalmarsson hit him into the boards from behind last October, allowed that while the Cooke suspension is sure to act as a deterrent to others, few players and organizations will be willing to remonstrate against one of their own in the way Pittsburgh has.

“That’s hard to do, I know I wouldn’t speak out against a teammate in public . . . but we saw it earlier this year in Boston (where Andrew Ference called out teammate Daniel Paille for a blindside hit) but it’s not an easy thing to do,” he said.

Buffalo head coach Lindy Ruff, the league’s longest-serving bench boss, also saluted the NHL’s decision on Cooke, saying “the league nailed that one.”

Ruff was also asked if he’d had a word with his players to adjust their play in light of the sanction, he laughed and said “players can see it, I don’t need to talk to them.”

“Any guy who has a head shot in his history now, or a deliberate attempt, the message is pretty clear,” Ruff said. “And it’s a good message.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Oilers players support Cooke suspension

By DEREK VAN DIEST, QMI Agency Mrch 23, 2011

NASHVILLE — Tom Gilbert knows what it’s like to be at the receiving end of a headshot.

As a rookie, the Edmonton Oilers defenceman was knocked unconscious on a hit by Jody Shelley, who was with the Columbus Blue Jackets at the time.

Shelley’s hit was considered clean, unlike Matt Cooke’s cheap shot that earned the Pittsburgh Penguins winger a suspension through the first round of the playoffs.

“I think it’s important for the league to send that message, especially against repeat offenders,” said Gilbert. “They should continue to increase suspensions if it’s happening over and over with the same guy, there should be repercussions for it. There is no need for that in this game. The game is faster, guys are bigger and stronger and it’s a more physical game and there is really no need for stuff like that.”

Cooke has a reputation for perhaps being the dirtiest player in the league and had been suspended on four previous occasions prior to Monday’s disciplinary hearing.

“I think he got what he deserved,” said Nashville Predators centre Jerred Smithson. “He’s a repeat offender and something like that is a dangerous play. It wasn’t like the guy turned into the hit or anything. It was an elbow to the head and I think the league got it right.”

Hope around the game is that harshness of the suspension sends a message throughout the league. The length of the suspension also sets a guideline for similar offences.

“I think that physical part of the game has to be there, it’s a major part of hockey, but there’s a fine line,” Smithson said. “You have to play the game on the edge, but be careful not to go over it. I think it will maybe give a lot of guys a bit of a wakeup call.”

Considering the number of incidents Cooke has been involved in throughout his career, it’s obvious he has difficulty identifying the line.

However, according to Oilers rugged defenceman Theo Peckham, while the line can sometimes be blurred, it comes down to respecting an opponent.

“Obviously they’re trying to crack down on hits like that, and he’s had some issues before and they’re trying to get it out of the game,” Peckham said. “It’s tough. As a physical player myself, there are going to be times when you have incidental contact to the head. In those situations I understand that the league is going to do something about it. I understand it’s kind of the hot topic right now, so it’s something that you have to watch out for.

“I think anything that looks like it’s blatant, like you did it on purpose, it looks like they’re really going to crack down on it.”

Unfortunately, regardless of how severe the punishments, Peckham believes there will continue to be those who let emotion get in the way of common sense.

“There are guys out there that don’t care,” Peckham said. “I play the game on the edge also, but I’m not out there trying to hurt anybody. Obviously because of the way I do play, it sometimes gives off that image, but it’s all about the respect for other players. I try not to hit guys from behind, I try not to get my stick up or my elbows up, but at the same time, you have to be on that edge and sometimes in a game, during the heat of the battle, you cross the line.

“But it’s good that if guys cross the line, they’re going to crack down on it. It’s good to see that they’re trying to protect us.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

NHL sends a message – Moose players applaud Cooke suspension

By KEN WIEBE, QMI Agency March 23, 2011

The general consensus is that Matt Cooke got what he deserved.

After weeks of talking about the importance of taking headshots and cheapshots out of the game, the NHL acted swiftly — and correctly — when they suspended the Pittsburgh Penguins winger for the final 10 games of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs.

“Guys are upset (with the hit) and rightfully so — we want to keep the game as pure as possible,” said Moose centre Marco Rosa. “It’s unfortunate it seems to be the same guys (delivering the dirty hits). You try to look out for guys that are dangerous, you have to be aware of them but there are times when you are trying to make a good play and when guys aren’t abiding by the rules, some guys are going to cheapshot you.

“(The NHL) has done something (with the suspension) that hopefully opens some guys eyes.”

While it’s nice to see Cooke step up and take responsibility for his actions and even apologize to New York Rangers defenceman Ryan McDonagh, so far his words have been a little hollow when it comes to cleaning up his act.

Until he stops delivering the type of checks that put other players in danger, Cooke isn’t likely to get the benefit of the doubts from either teammates or opponents.

Sure, Cooke got hit in the wallet but since the Penguins are already in injury trouble with Sidney Crosby still on the shelf with no return date available and Evgeni Malkin already done for the season, his absence from the first round could be critical.

If the Penguins lose in the first round, Cooke will have to live with that during the off-season.

“It could kill their playoff hopes even that much more — it’s not just something where you’re just hurting yourself and losing a paycheck, you’re hurting your team,” said Moose forward Jason Jaffray. “As much as Matt Cooke gets a bad rap for head-hunting and stuff like that, he still helps out his team every night. He skates well, he has some skill, too, and he chips in offensively. So it’s not just tough for him, it’s tough for the Pittsburgh Penguins.”

And that’s the whole point of holding players responsible for their actions.

Jaffray actually had Cooke as a teammate with the Vancouver Canucks a few years ago and it seems like not a lot has changed for him since those days.

“I was watching the game (on TV) and the first thing I thought (Cooke) was a repeat offender and has been suspended a few times for the same kind of hit,” said Jaffray. “The league made the right call. If you’re trying to send a message, (Cooke) is a guy that’s not getting it right now so something had to be done.”

Moose head coach Claude Noel views the Cooke hit as the exact type of hit the NHL must remove from the game entirely.

“They took a stand in the right direction,” said Noel. “(Cooke) has got to look in the mirror and say ‘what am I doing?’ Really. I thought it was a cheap hit. Was else can I say. He put it out on a platter. That’s the fifth time he’s been suspended. I think everyone can clearly see what’s gone on and the punishment was deserved.”

Noel is hopeful the length of the suspension will help other players think twice about doing something similar.

“Players aren’t in it to hurt each other, but they’ve got to clean this up a bit and I think the players know it,” said Noel.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Interesting comments from a teammate. Funny how Mario hasn't said anything since Cooke did this and got suspended. If Mario has such a problem with this stuff (as he came out and stated so publically earlier), why isn't he saying something about Cooke? Why does he even have a player like Cooke on his team? I think Mario should add to the suspension, or release him / put him on waivers (not sure if Mario would be allowed to do either based on the NHLPA, rules, etc.) I hope this is one issue that continues to receive the spotlight – we need to get rid of cheap shots. It is a lack of respect. We coaches should be teaching respect as a life skill…

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Letang: Cooke deserved suspension

By QMI Agency March 23, 2011

MONTREAL – Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman Kristopher Letang says teammate Matt Cooke deserved to have the NHL’s hammer drop on him for his latest on-ice cheapshot.

“He’s an important player on our team but even he knew what was coming after what he did,” Letang told QMI Agency this week.

Cooke was suspended for the rest of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs for his elbow to the head of Rangers defenceman Ryan McDonagh on Sunday.

Letang says Cooke apologized to his teammates when the team plane landed in Detroit on Sunday evening.

“Once were at the hotel in Detroit, Matt apologized in front of everyone and admitted he would have to change his playing style,” Letang said.

“I think he’ll reflect on things because of the suspension he got.”

Letang said Cooke hurt his own team by taking a shot at McDonagh.

“His penalty cost us the game – an important game against a division rival. Matt has to face the consequences and the team shouldn’t be paying the price.”

A repeat offender with five suspensions, Cooke has earned the reputation as the NHL’s most notorious headhunter.

Cooke has said he's ready to clean up his act, and Letang says he’s willing to give his teammate the benefit of the doubt.

“Matt is not a guy with bad intentions. No one in our locker room has problems with him.”

Cooke’s latest penalty will cost him $219,000 in lost wages.

The NHL doled out the stiff sentence as it deals with intense criticism over headshots that have taken out several players, including the league’s poster boy, Sidney Crosby.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Mike Milbury sees the light
Bruce Dowbiggin – The Usual Suspects
From Friday's Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Mar. 24, 2011

Hockey Night in Canada analyst Mike Milbury was once a staunch defender of laissez-faire hockey. Now, he says he’s changed his tune about the dangers of hockey.

Milbury says the accumulation of evidence in the National Hockey League and in his own life became too great to ignore.

“You can’t live in a vacuum,” the former NHL player and executive says. “We have seen dramatic changes, and they’ve caused a ripple effect. I think the latest [projected] number is 100 concussions in the NHL this season. I’ve been all for letting it go, but when you see that, you have to sit back and rethink it.”

Call it a recantation. Call it an enlightenment. Long-time Hockey Night in Canada viewers were taken aback on March 5 by his abrupt change of course. Colleague Pierre LeBrun said whimsically: “The wussification of Mike Milbury, never thought I’d see it.”

Citing the number of concussions resulting from the league’s fisticuffs, particularly the staged version, Milbury conceded: “The only reason we have fighting in the game is because we like it.”

Over arguments from HNIC host Ron MacLean that deterrence works, Milbury snapped: “Don’t tell me we police it, Ron … it’s still hogwash.”

Glenn Healy, HNIC analyst and Milbury’s occasional verbal sparring partner, says he wasn’t surprised by Milbury’s flip-flop.

“He’s very bright, he’s not a cookie-cutter guy,” Healy says. “Mike looks at things in his own light. So I wasn’t surprised by it. He’s still a traditionalist, but I don’t think he cares how he’s perceived.”

Part of Milbury’s concern about the cumulative effects of head shots stems from the experience of his own young sons in minor hockey. What they see on TV, they replicate at community rinks.

“I have 11- and 12-year-old boys,” Milbury, 59, says. “Even at that level they’re going at each other. I see some of the kids go underground when they play because they don’t want to get wasted. At that age, their heads and necks are not developed. They’re more susceptible to concussions and the after-effects, and, duh, does it take more than that? They should take hitting out till kids are in bantam.”

At the NHL level, the 12-year NHL veteran sees a game with greater speed and fitter athletes than when he played or was general manager of the New York Islanders (1995-99).

“I played with guys who were painters or construction workers in the summer, because they had to make money,” Milbury says. “Now, because of the money, these guys are fitness freaks, and the collisions are more violent. You can see the results that come, in part, from this. I talk to guys I played with and they’re still a little wacky now from the hits they took. When I see these guys going down at the NHL level, you have to take a look.”

Milbury is separating himself from the Don Cherry camp on the violence issue, and part of the rethink includes purging designated fighters. That represents a significant about-face from November of 1998, when Milbury complained that efforts to eliminate fighting would result in the “pansification” of the league. At the time, Cherry refused to echo the coined word, and after Milbury used it again in January of 2009, CBC bowed to pressure from gay rights groups by censoring Milbury.

“Some people submit that one in four concussions are from fights,” Milbury says today. “If that’s even in the ballpark, we have to look at it. If you’re out there for four minutes a game and you have 25 majors, there’s no place for you in the game. Grapes [Cherry] had a team [the Boston Bruins] that could fight, but they could play too. Detroit general manager Ken Holland told me, there are nights when our manhood is challenged, but my job is to win games, not fights. If these guys can’t play in the playoffs, what’s the point?”

Making the playing surface safer is also on Milbury’s agenda.

“Why are stanchions still there between the benches?” he asks. “We haven’t had a bench-clearing brawl since 1987. Get them out of there. They sell tickets for that area in some buildings, but I can’t believe they’re there to protect those tickets. I asked the NHL why they weren’t taken down the day after [Zdeno] Chara’s hit on [Max] Pacioretty, but they won’t tell me.”

Former NHLer Keith Primeau, whose career was ended by concussion issues in 2006 and who has only recently turned the corner in his recovery, says it’s hard for hockey players to acknowledge change.

“It’s the mentality we grew up with, the competitive spirit that makes it so hard to change for us,” Primeau says. “People have to understand that it’s not succumbing to something different. It’s not to be feared. I understand that now.”

Milbury insists he doesn’t want to “wussify” the sport.

“It’s never going to be completely safe,” he says. “Even if it’s no-touch there’s still a stick and a puck out there. I’m not advocating hooking and holding, but the whole thing needs a thorough look. The new rules in 2004 were more a heated rush because of the lockout. I hope they take their time and get it right.”

Nor is he going soft.

“I wear pink ties, my manhood is not challenged,” Milbury says. “I have a hockey history that keeps me from losing sleep over this stuff.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Concussions, CTE mean it's time for fighting to go

Thursday, March 24, 2011 Gregg Drinnan The Daily News

The time has come to rid major junior hockey of fighting.

There. I said it.

And you know what?

It doesn’t feel half bad. In fact, it feels pretty good.

Having been around the WHL for more than 30 years, I have long been a drinker of the Kool-Aid. When hockey people would say that fighting is an integral part of the game, that a fight could swing a game’s momentum one way or the other, that players rarely got injured in a fight, I would nod my head in agreement.

Fighting, the hockey lifers will tell you, has always been part of the game.

And it has been. Just like the centre-ice red line. And goaltenders handling the puck without restrictions. And obstruction. And one referee.

But now it’s time for fighting to go.

Why?

Because the time has come for the WHL to rid its game of headshots. It has to do this because it is imperative that it do more to protect its young players from concussions.

And it would be hypocritical to invoke a ban on headshots and not take fighting out of the game.

How can you ban headshots while saying it’s OK for two players to stand there and punch each other in the face?

My thinking started to change about the time that researchers at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at the Boston University School of Medicine revealed that an examination of the brain of former NHLer Reggie Fleming, a disturber in the 1960s who died in 2009, showed indications of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Then, in the last while, the same researchers found CTE in the brain of former NHL enforcer Bob Probert.

That, along with some on-ice happenings, has made headshots and concussions the hot-button topic in and around hockey at all levels.

Also influencing my thinking were incidents involving Sidney Crosby and Killian Hutt, Zdeno Chara on Max Pacioretty, Matt Cooke on Marc Savard and on and on.

And then came an email from the mother of a WHL player. She expressed concern over the number of concussions and head injuries in the WHL this season, a figure that now has reached at least 100. This wasn’t your ordinary email, because it came from a professional who provided documentation, some of it frightening, to every statement she made.

It is most obvious that, while the study of concussions and their long-term effects is in its infancy, head injuries no longer can be looked at in the short term. Studies that have been done contain too many words and phrases like “ongoing impairment” and “recurrent or cumulative damage” and “chronic neurocognitive impairment” and “early onset of dementia.”

During the 2009-10 season, a group of medical professionals, including Dr. Charles Tator, who is considered Canada’s pre-eminent expert on sport concussions, put together the Hockey Concussion Education Project, a study involving “67 male fourth-tier ice hockey players from two teams.”

Physicians involved attended 52 regular-season games involving junior-aged players and observed 21 concussions to 17 players. “A concussion was diagnosed in 19 (36.5 per cent) of 52 observed games,” the resulting report reads.

It is interesting, too, that “no concussions that occurred in practices were reported by either team during the study. Previous sport concussion studies demonstrated that concussion predominantly occurs in game situations.”

The professionals involved in this study, however, ran into some problems.

As they reported: “Complaints by coaches, players and parents concerning the inconvenience of multiple physician visits for serial testing and evaluation were common. The reluctance to report concussion symptoms and to follow such protocols likely results from certain cultural factors such as athletes asserting their masculinity by playing through the discomfort of an injury, and the belief that winning is more important than the athlete’s long-term health.”

The report summarized that “the incidence of concussion in fourth-tier junior ice hockey players was significantly greater than has previously been reported in the literature for this age group.”

Another report — this one by Drs. Jeffrey S. Kutcher, Christopher C. Giza and Anthony G. Alessi, titled simply Sports Concussion — concludes with this:

“Increasing animal and human data suggest that the developing brain’s reaction to concussive injury is distinct from the mature brain, and that age-specific clinical guidelines for concussion management be developed, with perhaps a more conservative approach to assessment and recovery.”

You don’t have to look very hard to find warning signs and lots of them.

According to one study involving U.S. college football players, those who suffered one concussion “were 3.4 times more likely than uninjured teammates to sustain a subsequent concussion during the same season.”

And then there is this from a study titled Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy: A Potential Late Effect of Sport-Related Concussive and Subconcussive Head Trauma:

“A minority of cases with neuropathologically documented CTE developed dementia before death; the relative infrequency of dementia in individuals with CTE may be due in part to many individuals with CTE having committed suicide or died from accidents or drug overdoses at an early age.”

Unfortunately, the only way to diagnose CTE is through the examination of a brain, although efforts are being made, according to this report, “to identify biomarkers to detect the disease and monitor its progression and to develop therapies to slow or reverse its course.”

In the meantime, the WHL, indeed all of hockey, owes it to the athletes to do more to protect them from themselves.

“It is widely accepted that the symptomatic effects of up to 90 per cent of concussions are short-lived, lasting only seven to 10 days,” reads the report titled Sports Concussion. “This viewpoint puts sports concussion in the light of being a transient phenomenon with little or no long-lasting effects. There is increasing concern, however, that this may not be the case.”

It is imperative, then, that the WHL and other junior hockey leagues err on the side of caution and work harder to get headshots — and fighting — out of the game. According to hockeyfights.com, there were more than 800 fights in the WHL’s 792 regular-season games in 2010-11.

The adults charged with the care of these players must do all they can to protect their charges.
It is becoming more and more evident that the cost of not doing so is far too high.

(Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, gdrinnan.blogspot.com and twitter.com/gdrinnan.)

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Kypreos, VandenBussche on concussions

BY SPORTSNET STAFF March 25, 2011 sportsnet.ca

Former National Hockey League enforcers Nick Kypreos and Ryan VandenBussche were no strangers to hiding concussion symptoms during their playing days, a problem the two believe still exist in today's league.

In a Rogers Sportsnet special Thursday night — Crisis on Ice? — the two players spoke face-to-face for the first time about their fight in a September 1997 pre-season game that saw Kypreos suffer a career-ending concussion.

In the candid interview with Bob McCown of Sportsnet Radio FAN 590, both players discussed the impact that fateful night had on their lives while relating to the issue of head injuries in the current NHL.

"You never, ever want to end a guy's career, especially in that nature," VandenBussche said of leaving a bloodied Kypreos face-down on the ice with a left-handed knockout punch. "I'll never forget that feeling of going to the penalty box, looking back and seeing what I saw. And I'm going to be quite honest with you, it made me sick to my stomach

"After that, I didn't know how to react."

While Kypreos was the one on the receiving end of the knockout punch, that night also changed the way VandenBussche viewed fighting in hockey. He continued, "I fought out of fear … When I was in the penalty box after that incident, it actually scared me (the thought of) fighting. I didn't have that before. When I was young and anxious, I'd look forward to it sometimes but after that incident I was like, 'That could've been me on that ice like that.'

"You had to have a certain mentality when you're on the ice and you're going to do battle with guys twice your size. Nick's not a big guy either, and seeing something like that, that could happen to me … It's a weird mentality, it's almost sadistic to say, but you have to want to get that guy down. Was I happy that I knocked Nick down on the ice? Yes I was, but I wasn't happy that I ended his career, by no means."

Kypreos, an eight-year NHL veteran at the time, was trying to retain a spot with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He knew he had to drop the gloves to prove he could still perform as an NHL enforcer, even waving off the linesman who wanted to break up the fight.

"I was at the end of my career," Kypreos said. "That was a fight that was much different than anything I experienced the last 10 years because that was one of the fights that I needed. For the first time, I felt that I had to win. Not even tie, because I was fighting for a roster spot and I knew that.

"I got to basically knock this guy out myself to keep my job and I knew that. That's when Ryan got his left hand free and brought my shoulder pads in towards him and got me. Ultimately, we knew both what we had to do coming out of training camp to keep a job and we were both willing guys to do it," he said.

While Kypreos' career came to an abrupt end that night on the first shift of the game, he's never received — nor wanted — an apology from VandenBussche.

"No, and if he apologized, I'd probably kick his ass because there's no way that anyone should have to apologize for doing their job. That's not something I ever looked for out of Ryan VandenBussche," Kypreos said.

Kypreos and VandenBussche also discussed the reality of players covering up concussion symptoms, something that was common when they played and may still be an issue in the current NHL. VandenBussche admitted to suffering more than a dozen concussions in his career.

"I don't have one recorded concussion with the league, but that's nobody's fault but my own," VandenBussche said. "It wasn't the trainer's fault. It wasn't the league's fault or the coach's fault. It was my fault because I chose not to express it to anybody."

VandenBussche, who played nine seasons in the NHL with the New York Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins, recalled the 1996-97 season when he suffered three concussions in a four-week span. Following one fight with Stu Grimson of the Hartford Whalers, a dazed VandenBussche refused to show any signs of injury to his coaches and teammates.

"I get to the penalty box and I couldn't even read the scoreboard. I get to the bench and (then Rangers coach) Colin Campbell says, 'Get off the ice. Take a rest in the dressing room.' I refused to go to the dressing room because I didn't want anyone to think I was hurt."

The refusal to recognize possible head injuries is a problem Kypreos believes may still exist with the modern player.

"I think these guys still try to live in denial in terms of acknowledging what they've gone through," he said.

—–

FAST FACTS

Kypreos believed he needed to win the fight vs. VandenBussche to retain spot with Leafs
Kypreos said he never received — nor wanted — an apology from VandenBussche
VandenBussche admitted to suffering more than a dozen concussions, none revealed to the league

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Report: Marc Savard suffers from memory loss

Globe and Mail Update
Published Saturday, Mar. 26, 2011

Boston Bruins centre Marc Savard is having “real memory problems and is quite worried about it,” a source told ESPN.com on Saturday.

Savard suffered his second concussion in less than a year when he was hit into the boards by Colorado’s Matt Hunwick on January 22nd and has been placed on his team’s long-term injured reserve.

Savard scored two goals and eight assists in 25 games after returning to the ice, albeit briefly, this season. Savard sustained his first concussion on March 7, 2010 after a check by Pittsburgh Penguins forward Matt Cooke and did not return until the second round of the playoffs last season.

He also missed the first 23 games of this season.

Cooke is currently under suspension for his more recent illegal hit on New York Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh. The recent league-wide upswing in head shots led the NHL to outlaw blindside hits to the head.

Savard said he has also suffered from bouts of extreme drowsiness and also said things seem to move slower since he sustained his injuries.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Boy band takes a shot at Don Cherry and hockey violence

ROY MACGREGOR
Ottawa— From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Mar. 25, 2011

Ah, the Great Canadian Cliché:

A hockey net in the driveway, kids racing home from school, the music turned up too high …

But wait, what is that music?

Rock ’em, sock ’em, so says Don,

He’s making millions but my brains are gone.

Take a stand, do what’s right.

Boom Boom – out go the lights!

Welcome to the home of the Dubé brothers, Canada’s youngest rock band, and the latest voice, even if none of the three has yet dropped, to join the chorus crying out for National Hockey League action on head shots.

Liam Dubé is 13, already a “retired” competitive hockey player. Brothers Jan, 12, and Quinn, 10, are also hockey fans. All three are outraged by what they have seen this winter as the likes of Sidney Crosby go down for months with concussion.

These are not kids without influence. When the three brothers – Liam on guitar, Jan on bass, Quinn on drums – set out to raise money for Haiti earthquake victims, they held concerts and did street busking in the Ottawa market until they had $106,300. They were a sensation and helped close out the Ottawa Bluesfest last summer. They were joined in the street for an impromptu jam by Arcade Fire, the Montreal group that won album of the year at the 2011 Grammy Awards. The brothers can be found all over YouTube with cover versions of works by Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Guns N’ Roses, Nirvana.

They come by their music naturally. Grandmother Cathy Dubé plays piano, accordion and sings. Father Rob plays numerous instruments (“I’m a hack.”). They began performing a few years back when their late mother, Michelle, was ill with cancer. The musical videos they left her with during the school day seemed to help inspire her and, since then, they have tried to use their music only for good causes. Their first fundraising effort was to help fight breast cancer. Then, when they heard that so many Haitian children had lost parents, just as they had, they turned their attention to that cause with the support of Rob and stepmother Christine.

“I’m not a stage dad,” protests Rob, a federal civil servant. “This is all them. We never thought this would ever become something big.”

To try to bring children’s attention to the dangers of hits to the head in hockey, they took an old hit by Pat Travers, Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights), and tweaked the words in a fashion that directly takes on Don Cherry of Hockey Night in Canada and the NHL.

Down at the schoolyard, we’re told it ain’t right.

But home on the TV every Saturday night.

They’re throwin’ headshots and gettin’ in fights.

Boom Boom – out go the lights.

You throw your hands up and say it’s part of the game,

Like offside or icing but it’s damaging brains.

Until Mr. Bettman does what’s right.

Boom Boom – out go the lights.

They may be children, but they say in their own short lives, attitudes have changed, and professional hockey has failed to keep up. Liam – the one with the Justin Bieber hair – was once a good young player whose hockey hero was Scott Stevens, the New Jersey Devils’ defenceman famous for NHL-legal head shots to the likes of Eric Lindros and Paul Kariya that left the stars severely concussed.

“I used to try making open-ice hits,” Liam says, “even though there was no contact allowed.”

He remembers how the coach drilled into them: “Keep your head up!” And yet, he also knows that something along the way changed. “Back then,” he says, referring all the way back to 2003, “it wasn’t the guy doing the hitting who got blamed, it was the guy who got hit with his head down.”

The Dubé brothers loved hockey to the point where they had the NHL game on PlayStation 3 and had memorized dialogue from the movie Slap Shot. They owned Cherry’s Rock ’Em Sock ’Em DVDs and loved them, but no more.

“Some kids grow up thinking you either have to hit guys in the head or else fight to be in the NHL,” Jan says.

“It’s not a good example for kids to follow,” Liam adds. “The NHL should be doing something about it, because now we know what it’s doing to players.”

“It’s really simple,” says Quinn, the youngest of the three, “in our schoolyard if we do this” – he reaches and lightly cuffs a brother’s arm – “you get a note. Get three, you get suspended.” He cannot comprehend the NHL argument that it is complicated. In his view, a hit to the head and you are gone, no excuses allowed.

As for Don Cherry, once their hero, they look to him to come around on all hits to the head, accidental or not, as well.

“People can change,” Liam says. “I think he’s more aware now. We’re not trying to get on his bad side, but if we do, well, all we want to do is raise awareness.”

Take a stand, do what’s right.

Boom Boom – out go the lights!

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Concussions keeping kids out of hockey

By ERIC FRANCIS, QMI Agency, March 29 2011

Bob Nicholson didn’t need a poll or a one-hour TV special on concussions to tell him more and more parents are concerned about their kids’ safety on the ice.

The president of Hockey Canada has already seen minor hockey’s registration numbers decline two years in a row and is well aware the rise in head-shots and concussions in the NHL could help drive his numbers lower.

“It’s not just an NHL problem. It’s a hockey problem — it’s there in the game,” said Nicholson of the staggering rise in brain bruising Canadians are talking about.

“We have to attract kids to the game, but these type of hits don’t do that.”

In the fallout from the broken vertebrae suffered by Max Pacioretty, a recent Angus-Reid poll revealed one-third of Canadians would consider encouraging their children to avoid playing hockey while two-thirds believe the sport is more violent than five years ago.

And while cost, time commitment and various other factors have plenty to do with declining numbers, the NHL’s increased violence certainly won’t help moving forward, which is why Hockey Canada is now working hard on battling the notion the game isn’t as safe as in previous years.

“We want to attract kids to the game, and, obviously, if there’s a perception out there hockey is violent, that can’t help the game. We want to address that and make sure we put out the positives, and this is what we’re doing to make the game safe,” said Paul Carson, VP Development for Hockey Canada.

“We have all kinds of programs out there aimed at making the game as safe as possible. We need to enhance those rules through education and getting players to respect themselves and the other players. Parents also have to assist in creating that respectful environment. Safety is always top of the agenda.”

Obviously with the increased awareness of concussions and their dangers, reported head injuries are indeed up in all minor sports. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said as much. With almost one in seven NHLers suffering from concussions this season, it’s no wonder parents are wondering if it is prudent to expose their son or daughter to a potentially life-altering injury. Especially since they aren’t being paid to play the game.

“The NHL does so many great things for the game, but we also need to make sure we are differentiating the game they see on TV to the game they play at the rink,” said Dean McIntosh, Hockey Canada’s director of marketing services and events.

“Our goal is to have a message about what the game is about at our level of hockey. How do we make the game friendly for all Canadians even if mom and dad haven’t experienced it?”

As part of that education process, Hockey Canada is working with citizenship and immigration officials and have decided this year to have their annual mail-out to 235,000 kids printed in 12 different languages. The best chance for growing registration numbers is by connecting with new Canadians from around the world who represent the nation’s only real population growth. (In short, second- and third-generation Canadians are having fewer kids).

Just over 569,000 kids are playing this year, down from 576,000 last year. That’s less than 10% of Canadian kids.

“As we project forward with less kids playing sports and being active and the growth rate declining, it has the potential to decrease more than that the next five to 10 years,” said McIntosh whose organization is concerned as many as 200,000 fewer kids will be playing the game 10 years from now.

“How do we make sure the kids that enter as five to 10-year-olds stay in the game longer? How do we retain them or bring them back to the game?”

Well, you can start by hoping the evening highlights they watch don’t continue to include as many ugly incidents.

“Look at Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts – all they show is big hits in their intro,” said Nicholson who confirmed concussions and head-shots will be at the top of the agenda for Hockey Canada’s annual meetings in May.

“It’s part of our culture we have to change. We have to attract kids to the game, but these type of hits don’t attract kids to the game.”

Nor parents.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

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