Articles

[hockeygod]

Something seems amiss in the puck world

ROY MacGREGOR | From Tuesday's Globe and Mail / Published Monday, May. 23, 2011

When I departed this continent not so long ago, the Detroit Red Wings were on a roll and Henrik Sedin was invisible; now Henrik’s on a roll and the Red Wings are nowhere to be seen.

Must be a grand Stanley Cup playoffs.

It is also, however, spring, a special time of year treasured in Canada as much as it is in Paris – where I happened to be to celebrate a family marriage – and it was pretty obvious that any suggestion there that we head inside on a sunny afternoon to watch TV would have been met with a dismissive wave of the hand.

GIVE US BACK OUR DAYLIGHT

There was a comment during Sunday afternoon’s match between the Vancouver Canucks and Tampa Bay Lightning in which viewers were expected to feel for Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo, who has a certain routine he likes to follow each day before playoff games.

Well, who doesn’t have a certain routine this time of year? Canadians want to be out biking, gardening, canoeing, walking, even slapping black flies on a lovely afternoon during a rare long weekend.

There should be a clause in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that prohibits the national game from being played at such inappropriate times.

After all, we have NHL hockey a ridiculous nine months of the year; we only have a pocketful of glorious spring afternoons in an entire lifetime. To ruin two such afternoons in a single weekend, as happened Saturday and Sunday, is simply unacceptable.

NBC, which recently signed a 10-year $2-billion deal with the NHL, is obviously calling the shots, but NBC did not invent afternoon hockey. That credit goes to CBS way back in 1957, when the Chicago Blackhawks met the New York Rangers in a regular-season game.

CBS bullied its way to the nap-time time slot, but the league balked at the network’s request to rip off those iconic jersey crests and have numbers front and back of the players to help their play-by-play announcer.

If only the league had said “No” to the entire idea.

DRAFT/SCHMAFT

The playoffs are surely a different test than regular season – as shown each year by such surprising tales as Chris Kontos scoring nine goals in 11 games for the Los Angeles Kings in 1989.

This year’s equivalent, obviously, is Tampa Bay Lightning’s Sean Bergenheim leading the playoffs in goal scoring after a career in which he attracted so little attention only his parents knew he was a Finn.

Bergenheim, however, was a fairly high draft pick, 22nd overall in 2002, something that cannot be said for a surprising number of other stars in the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs.

In fact, the results so far bring into question just how prescient can be a system that purports to project what an 18-year-old kid will be when he reaches his prime.

Of the top 10 scorers, three – Tampa’s Martin St. Louis and Teddy Purcell, San Jose’s Dan Boyle – were never drafted at all. Two others, San Jose’s Ryane Clowe and Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk were drafted 175th and 171st, respectively.

Henrik Sedin, the leading scorer, went third overall and his twin Daniel second. Joe Thornton and Vincent Lecavalier were both No. 1 draft picks.

As, of course, was Luongo, who seems on the verge of delivering on that great early promise.

But what of the other top goalies? Tampa’s Dwayne Roloson and San Jose’s Antti Niemi were never drafted. Roloson’s effective backup, Mike Smith, who started Monday night’s game against Boston, went 161st. Boston’s Tim Thomas was a 217th draft pick while Nashville’s brilliant Pekka Rinne went 258th. In fact, the closest a top 2011 playoff goaltender comes to Luongo in draft terms is Detroit’s Jimmy Howard, who went 64th overall in his draft year.

Maybe longtime hockey executive Cliff Fletcher wasn’t all that wrong when he scoffed “draft schmaft” about the critical import of making the right decisions on 18-year-olds.

LORD STANLEY IS NOT AMUSED

One can only wonder what Lord Stanley of Preston would make of that Budweiser ad starring his beloved trophy.

Back in 1892, the then Governor-General offered Canada a cup that he insisted be a “challenge trophy” that should be no one’s permanent property but would be awarded to the top “amateur” team in the country.

So much for challenges; so much for amateurs; so much, it once seemed, for ownership.

But back in the 2004-05 lockout year, Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson, acting on behalf of her long-deceased predecessor, challenged the National Hockey League’s presumed ownership of the cherished trophy, stating that, in her opinion, “The Stanley Cup belongs to the people of Canada.”

The GG’s call to arms was taken up by a group of Toronto recreational players, several of whom happened to be top-notch lawyers, and they took the league to court. Though the league initially dismissed the court action as frivolous mischief, the lawyers arguments – helped along with impeccable research by hockey historian Paul Kitchen – eventually gained an out-of-court agreement in which the league essentially agreed that Clarkson had been correct.

That being the case, we can only assume the performance fees and residuals due Lord Stanley’s mug for this demeaning beer commercial will be handed over to the Receiver General.

In trust, for the people of Canada.

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

[hockeygod]

Hockey enforcers paying horrible price

gdrinnan.blogspot.com May 26, 2011

By now it is rather apparent that Derek Boogaard, the New York Rangers’ enforcer, was a troubled young man.

Boogaard was 28 years of age when his body was discovered in his Minneapolis apartment on May 13 at 6:30 pm. One season into a four-year, US$6.5-million contract with the New York Rangers, Boogaard hadn’t played since suffering a concussion in a fight during a game on Dec. 9.

It was the 66th and final bout of his NHL career.

According to the Hennepin County Medical Examiners’ Office, which issued its report on Friday, “Cause of death is mixed alcohol and oxycodone toxicity.”

Oxycodone is used to treat moderate to severe pain. It is a narcotic pain reliever and is highly addictive. It has, in fact, been compared to heroin; in some corners, it is referred to as Hillbilly Heroin. It is evil.

What was especially chilling, however, was one sentence in an ensuing statement from Boogaard’s family.

“After repeated courageous attempts at rehabilitation and with the full support of the New York Rangers, the NHLPA, and the NHL,” the statement read, “Derek had been showing tremendous improvement but was ultimately unable to beat this opponent.”

Boogaard, the 6-foot-7, 270-pounder who had laid out many an opposing player, lost his last fight.

On the heels of that statement came a story by Allan Maki in The Globe and Mail in which Kurt Walker, another former NHL enforcer, talked of gobbling pain killers — especially Xanax and Valium — like Christmas candy. It took an intervention and rehab to save Walker.

Boogaard wasn’t so fortunate.

When the Rangers sent Boogaard home in March, it was reported that they wanted him to begin working on his conditioning for next season. However, Larry Brooks of the New York Post reported Sunday that “management essentially staged an intervention with Boogaard at the club's practice rink in late March that resulted in (his) re-entry into the NHL/NHLPA Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program.”

And we now know how that turned out.

What we don’t know is how many concussions Boogaard suffered during a hockey career that, according to hockeyfights.com, included 184 bouts since the fall of 1999, or how much those fights impacted Boogaard’s abbreviated life.

But the fact that he was using Oxycodone is frightening, as is the story that Walker told Maki.

It turns out that a lot of this will be familiar to medical professionals working with patients who are trying to deal with chronic pain.
One such professional, who has been working in the acute side of a B.C. hospital while following the concussions-in-hockey debate, wrote via email:

“I am seeing patients whose lives have been ruined by chronic pain treated with narcotics and then having to deal with the impact of addictions. Many of them having emotional or cognitive issues going into it. Lots of post-traumatic stress and abuse and psychiatric diagnoses.”

In other words, people like Derek Boogaard and Kurt Walker are hardly alone out there. The question, however, is how many former and present-day hockey players are fighting this same battle?

The evidence proving concussions are a horrible hockey problem now is so one-sided as to be laughable. (See the latest issue of Macleans or visit macleans.ca for even more evidence, including the case of Eric Lindros, who had what should have been a hall-of-fame career short-circuited by concussions. In this same story, former WHLer Kevin Kaminski explains how he believes post-concussion syndrome cost him his marriage.)

Boogaard, meanwhile, was working on a book — Meet the Boogey Man: Fighting My Way to the Top — with author Ross Bernstein. Appearing on Puck Daddy Radio last week, Bernstein told of being on a golf course one day last summer when Boogaard called him.

“I need you to come get me,” Boogaard told Bernstein, who promptly asked: “Well, where are you?”

Boogaard’s response was: “I don’t know.”

Devin Wilson, a former teammate of Boogaard’s with the Prince George Cougars, was in the process of purchasing a New York condo with his buddy. Thus, Wilson was able to watch Boogaard as he attempted to deal with his latest concussion.

"It was frustrating because we couldn't go out without his head spinning again,” Wilson told Jason Peters of the Prince George Citizen. “One thing that nobody knows is that riding in cabs through New York, he would just start spinning. He'd have his hands on his head and he'd say, 'I need to get out right now' and we'd end up walking like 60 blocks home. I knew (the concussion) was bad.”

Boogaard’s family has turned his brain over to Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy. If, as anticipated, Boogaard’s brain shows signs of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) it will mean that the veritable flood of evidence has moved closer to the WHL’s doorstep.

At the time of his death, Boogaard was only eight years removed from having played in the WHL, where he was involved in 70 fights in 172 regular-season games.

All of this should be enough to make any parent wonder about sending a child off to play in a league that outlaws neither fighting nor headshots.

Stu Grimson, a former WHL/NHL enforcer who practises law in Nashville and also works as an analyst on Predators’ broadcasts, admitted to Maki that recent developments have him feeling conflicted.

“Part of me says, ‘How does a sport so bent on cutting down blows to the head still allow two players to throw bare-fisted punches at one another's head?’ How do you reconcile that?” Grimson said. “But part of me also says the way the sport is played, if you have someone like me on the bench, the other team knows it could be held accountable. It's a tough issue.”

There is no denying that it is a tough issue.

But is it any tougher than what Boogaard went through? Or what Kurt Walker and who knows how many others are going through?

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

[hockeygod]

Concussion ended Cuthbert's season

By: John MacNeil Brandon Sun 25/05/2011

Even the dressing room, the comfort zone for many hockey players, became a distraction in Brayden Cuthbert's world.

As he tried to recover from a concussion that rocked his rookie season in the Western Hockey League, the Brandon native couldn't find peace in the Moose Jaw Warriors' locker-room.

"The dressing room isn't a quiet place, because the guys are all together, having a good time, talking about their day, what they did last night, and you're sitting in there, just sort of listening," Cuthbert said. "You don't want to toss in your information, either, because every word almost is echoing in the inside of your head. So I'd just go in the trainer's room after a little bit and relax in there, because the noise started getting to me after a few days. I didn't want to keep on prolonging my headaches."

Cuthbert's season turned into one big headache. Limited to 39 games, his schedule was essentially cut in half. After a promising start for the 16-year-old centre, his first year in the WHL came to a crushing end in January, almost three months before the Warriors played their historic final game in the Moose Jaw landmark known as the Crushed Can.

Just days after celebrating his 17th birthday and representing Team West in the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, Cuthbert suffered a concussion Jan. 22 when he was hit during a WHL game in Red Deer, Alta., against the Rebels.

"At the time, my trainer said it probably looked like it was only going to be a couple of weeks (on the sidelines)," he said. "But then the symptoms sort of just stayed around and I couldn't shake it off. It just kept going on and on and on, and unfortunately I'm still out talking about concussions to this day."

Moreso than ever, concussions are the talk of the hockey world — from minor to pro levels, from causes to treatment, and from short-term effects to long-term impact.

And there are no easy answers. More than four months after being sidelined, Cuthbert has just recently been free of concussion symptoms. He skated with friends last week and completed a workout without incident. It's a promising sign, but he still plans to see a neurologist in Winnipeg to further investigate the trauma that enveloped his life for months.

"Everybody is getting bigger and stronger nowadays," he said of today's hockey players. "There are faster skaters and the equipment seems to be getting heavier and thicker, so if you get hit in the head, it seems concussions are just popping up a lot more than they used to. It's not a good thing, at all. The league, or all leagues, are going to have to crack down on that, because if there's too many head injuries, who knows what's going to happen."

Cuthbert might be considered small at 5-foot-9 and about 170 pounds, but he doesn't mind getting his nose dirty. His game takes him into traffic and the danger zones.

"I'm pretty fast," he said. "I'm not the lightest guy, either, so I can toss my frame around a little bit. If you want to get the puck, you've got to go to the dirty places on the ice, and that's where I go."

Cuthbert wasn't braced for the season-ending open-ice hit from Red Deer defenceman Mathew Dumba, the WHL rookie of the year.

"I didn't really have the puck, so I wasn't expecting to get hit and the guy stepped up on me," he said. "He had his shoulder down, which is good, but it was a little late and sent me flying.

"Initially, my head wasn't my main concern. I had pretty big cuts on my face, but I was just like, 'OK, I'll play through that.' And I had a slight headache, which you always get when you get your bell rung, so I just assumed it would go away. So I played a couple of shifts and just remember, the second shift, I went to get a pass and the puck was just three feet behind me and I was just out of it and zoned out. I realized something wasn't right then and I had to skate off the ice and everything got a little blurry."

From waking up on the trainer's table that night to the long bus ride home in and out of a coherent state, Cuthbert's road to recovery took many turns. Although his concussion symptoms were already apparent, he suffered more headaches a few weeks later in Moose Jaw when he was involved in a minor car accident with teammate and roommate A.J. Johnson and bumped his head on the passenger's window.

"That probably set me back a little bit, too," he said. "I hit my head and there was just no padding in my head at the time, after the concussion. I gave myself another pretty big headache."

After sitting out the requisite number of days free of concussion symptoms, Cuthbert resumed practising in February and eyed a comeback.

"It looked like I was going to be able to come back pretty soon, but then this one practice, something just wasn't right in my head," he said. "It started getting blurry and I experienced the symptoms I got after the initial concussion."

That onslaught took the life out of a normally lively kid.

"Especially the first week or two after it happened, I would come home from just sitting and watching practice and I'd sleep through supper," Cuthbert said. "It feels like you're constantly tired and constantly lacking sleep. And you're really slowed down. The light really bothered me at first. Luckily, I had the dimming lights in my billet room, which was nice. But bright lights and noise really do give your head a ring.

"I never missed a day of school, but I essentially missed everything I learned. … I was in class, but by the end of class, I wouldn't even realize what happened or what I just learned. The whole class went out the window, pretty much."

Now back home in Brandon for the summer, Cuthbert is finishing his Grade 11 studies at Crocus Plains. He's making progress in school and in his attempt to play hockey again next season.

"I started skating again, just scrimmaging with guys last week, and I'm feeling pretty good right now," Cuthbert said this week. "I went almost an hour with no symptoms or anything, which is a really good sign."

Cuthbert's story has intrigued the local hockey community and he's agreed to speak at a concussion symposium in Brandon on June 8.

Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition May 25, 2011

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

[hockeygod]

Symptoms stopped Wheat Kings' Liston

By: John MacNeil Brandon Sun 25/05/2011

Back home for the off-season, Brandon Wheat Kings goaltender Liam Liston graduated from St. Albert Catholic High School in Alberta last weekend, right on schedule.

His first season in the Western Hockey League, however, ended prematurely when he was sidelined with a concussion midway through Brandon's playoff series against the Medicine Hat Tigers.

"It was the first concussion I ever had," said Liston, who turned 18 in April. "It's something that I don't really ever want to have to experience again. I just don't wish that on anybody. It's not a fun thing to go through — the way you feel — and hopefully I won't have to deal with it again.

"I think it's a little more prevalent with (skaters) — defencemen and forwards — than it is with goalies, with the body contact obviously. So I don't think it should be a problem (for me) in the years to come."

Liston's setback didn't even happen during a game.

"Just in practice, actually, between Games 3 and 4, I took a bit of a shot off the head," he said. "It kind of went from there and it developed. I took my (concussion) test and realized that it was a little more serious than we originally thought.

"It wasn't anything that was going to be career-threatening or anything like that. But at the same time, what people don't realize is concussion is a brain injury and I don't think the brain is ever something you want to take lightly when something has happened to it."

Liston and the Wheat Kings followed the WHL protocol for players believed to be suffering from concussion symptoms. Procedures are in place to detect head injuries and stipulate how long players must sit out before they're deemed healthy enough to return to action.

"In the National Hockey League, they talk about it now, too, where guys have to go visit the 'quiet room' and get checked out by a doctor," Liston said while watching the Stanley Cup playoffs on TV. "For us (in the WHL), we do a computer test and they compare it to your baseline tests from the start of the year when you're healthy and it gets shipped off to a specialist in the area and he compares them and lets them know which areas of the test you failed and what that means. It doesn't take him very long to figure out whether you're healthy or not.

"I was done for the rest of the series. We never really even put a timeline on (a possible return). I was just starting to get to that point when the series ended, so it was unfortunate."

Liston sat out the final three games of Brandon's 4-2 series loss to Medicine Hat. Dizziness and an aversion to light and noise were his most pronounced concussion symptoms.

"I slept all the time while I was on the road with the guys," he said. "In Winnipeg and stuff, I couldn't stop sleeping and had trouble walking. I watched the games from up in the press box, with the lights turned off, because that was about as far away from all the noise that I could get and it was the dimmest place I could watch from."

The well-spoken Liston has an analytical mind, but the NHL draft prospect doesn't want to get too comfortable in the press box. In the heat of the playoffs, though, that vantage point provided him with a calming environment away from the hustle and bustle at ice level.

"It's not fun and you don't want to bring the mood on the team down, so you try to stay away from the guys as much as you can," he said. "But I think with any injury, you start to feel like you should be out there and it's out of your control and you start getting frustrated with different doctors and stuff like that. But at the end of the day, they have your best interests in mind and they were just trying to help."

Ironically, his concussion came during the same series that the Tigers lost their St. Albert goalie, Edmonton Oilers draft choice Tyler Bunz, with the same ailment.

"For all the hype that there was before the series about us getting to play against each other — especially here back home, I know lots of people were excited about it — I guess it didn't really work out," Liston said of his friend Bunz. "It was just odd that the same thing was a problem for both of us."

"Obviously, Tyler recovered in time to have a good run with the Tigers. I know that neither of us would wish that (pain) on the other again. We laugh about it now, but at the time, it wasn't very much fun."

Goalies take shots in multiple forms, but Liston believes they're relatively well-protected, not only with advanced equipment.

"With the rules in place the way they are now, you're seeing a lot of cases in the playoffs this year where guys are getting called for goalie interference and stuff like that," he said. "I know that the referees in the Western Hockey League put a premium on protecting all the guys that play net. It's a good thing, because there can be a lot of jostling that goes on in front of you and sometimes you can get bumped accidentally. But they do a pretty good job of taking care of us, so that's great."

Liston rested after returning home this spring, but he's now working out daily in training for next season.

"You try not to do much physical activity for the first couple of weeks after it, just because you don't want to bring back any symptoms, at all," he said. "You've got to bring it along slowly. You need to rest."

Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition May 25, 2011

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

[hockeygod]

Hockey mom urges concussion awareness

By: John MacNeil Brandon Sun 26/05/2011

Kim Mills hopes Brandon can be a provincial catalyst in educating families about the impact of concussions in sports.

Her two sons, Jace and Connor, play football and Jace is also competitive hockey player who missed the latter part of his Bantam A season because of concussion symptoms. The Mills family has first-hand experience about one of the hottest issues in hockey. Mills brought the issue to Hockey Brandon's annual general meeting in April and the association has agreed to study it further in consultation with the membership.

"I asked that they spend some time on forming a strategy for concussion management, or concussions (in general), and said it would be great if they were leaders within Manitoba on putting together a plan that worked," she said.

"I just think that awareness is so important. There's so many myths associated with concussions. I think we need to do what we can to protect the kids and educate the parents and the kids, too. Like, it's OK (for players) to say, 'I've got to sit out,' and not be considered a wimp."

Hockey Brandon is polling its members for input on a gameplan to tackle and manage concussions.

"We've taken a proactive approach to offer a non-contact division for peewee-aged and older children who don't want to play (contact hockey)," said Hockey Brandon third vice-president Don Wilson. "A lot of larger centres are going to that, with very good success and their numbers are going up and kids are staying involved in the sport. We've sent out an email to all families to see if that is something they'd at all be interested in, just to get a gauge on interest."

ON TAP: Brandon will host an open concussion symposium June 8 at the Victoria Inn at 7 p.m.

Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition May 26, 2011

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

[hockeygod]

Dangerous hit derailed Mills' season

By: John MacNeil Brandon Sun 26/05/2011

Much like two of his favourite NHL players — Ryan Kesler and Ryan Getzlaf — Brandon bantam Jace Mills prefers to play hockey physically.

"I hit, I hit, I like hitting," said a smiling Mills, who turned 14 this week.

"I wasn't a hitter my first year of peewee, and then my second year, I got used to it. I remember, my friend … made a big hit and I was, like, 'I want to make a big hit. I want to do that.' I went and hit a kid and it felt good when I put him to the ice. I've been doing it since then."

Now going into his second year of bantam — and fourth season of bodychecking — Mills was on the receiving end of a bone-crunching hit this winter that left him with a concussion and derailed his season with Brandon's minor bantam team, the A&W Wheat Kings.

Even longtime hockey parents at the game said they hadn't previously witnessed such a severe check. It sent Mills head-first into the boards, said his mother Kim, who watched frantically from the sidelines during that mid-February game in Winnipeg.

"It was awful," she said. "We all thought there was no way Jace was going to get up. We thought, a broken neck maybe, or a stretcher (would be needed) or something. It was just a general gasp.

"It was one of those hits that no one wants to see happen. It was just an unfortunate timing with the space between (Jace and) the boards and the speed of the boy that was throwing the hit."

The Winnipeg Warriors' player who hit Mills received a game misconduct and an additional one-game suspension, Kim Mills said. "He had just returned from serving a suspension."

As much as Jace likes to throw checks, his parents say he does so cleanly.

"Jace hits a lot, but he's never been called for a hit from behind," said his father Dave. "You can be physical and aggressive and know when to stop."

Jace partly credits his football background for his knowledge of how to make a clean check on the ice.

"It's kind of simple," he said. "I think I learned from football, like, the proper contact. You don't rock someone from behind. You've got to go right at them. If it's a hit from behind, I don't like to be mean. Your team wouldn't like that, even, if you hit a kid from behind and got kicked out of the game."

Jace, at 5-foot-7 and 170 pounds, is a power forward who also plays defence, as he was during the game in which he was injured.

"It was a D-to-D pass in the neutral zone and the puck was ahead of me, so I tried to go get it and then I got hit," he said.

"When I hit the ground, it went all fuzzy sort of and it went black for a second. But I can't remember any pain. I got up and my coach was telling me to lay down, because he thought something was really wrong."

Jace, however, was able to leave the ice with minimal assistance and he stayed on the bench and in the game. But, on his next shift, he collided with a teammate and slammed into a goalpost.

"I ran into the post, and then I just skated off and sat in the dressing room until the end of the game," he said. "I just felt terrible. I didn't get sick, but I felt sick, for sure. I just wanted to go to sleep, pretty much, because my head was pounding."

Jace's doctor is the father of one of his teammates with the Bantam A Wheat Kings, so he was at the game and examined Jace in the dressing room and instructed him not to return to action that weekend. They scheduled a doctor's appoint-ment for Monday, two days after the hit.

"At that time, (the doctor) said, 'Don't prepare to play or don't plan to play for a while, because you're not going to,'" Kim said. "So that's what started my research, because Jace kept saying, 'My headache is gone. I feel good enough to play.' But it was quite the opposite."

Jace was not only off the ice, but he experienced concussion symptoms at home and in school.

"When I was reading, the words would sort of not come together," said the Grade 8 student. "Math was the worst because you're trying to focus and figure out the questions, but you can't. And then you get headaches because, I guess you could say, you're thinking too hard."

His parents were thinking, too, wondering what it would take for their son to regain his health. Kim began to research concussions and discovered that Jace's participation in math class might have been counter-productive to his recovery.

"It was, absolutely," she said in hindsight. "I was adamant that he had to go to school. You think you're a good parent and doing the right thing by saying, 'Go to school. You can't miss school. Come on.' I shouldn't have done that.

"But his school was good about it. We had to phone and say, 'He's got a headache, he's got a concussion and there's no way he can be active in phys ed.' The school was understanding. But they hadn't heard, either, that math was a factor (triggering concussion stress). Who knows? You've got to try to find that balance between school and sports and manage that."

At home, too, concussion symptoms caused discomfort for Jace.

"Even video games and TV, that kind of stuff early on was difficult," Kim said. "Sitting in a black room was the best (remedy) for the early onset."

At the same time, Jace was keen to return to the ice. After all, he's an active kid whose hobbies include snowboarding, skateboarding, biking and multiple school sports.

He attempted a hockey comeback when the local Directors Cup team began practising for the provincial development tournament for 1997-born players. He had been symptom-free for two weeks, but a recurrence of his headaches forced Jace to miss two big events that wrapped up the Wheat Kings' season — the Tournament of Champions in Brandon and the provincial championship in The Pas.

"It sucked," he said succinctly.

Eventually, he was able to practise and play with the Directors Cup team in late March to end a trying season on a positive note.

"With those good coaches, I learned more in those six weeks than I probably did in my whole season," Jace said. "And I improved a lot over that time, too."

As he returned to the ice, there were a few anxious moments for his parents.

"The first game back was hard to watch, just every hit," Kim said. "But by the second game, we were on stride. It was like it had never happened. He had forgotten about it." "I hit, I hit, I like hitting," said a smiling Mills, who turned 14 this week.

"I wasn't a hitter my first year of peewee, and then my second year, I got used to it. I remember, my friend … made a big hit and I was, like, 'I want to make a big hit. I want to do that.' I went and hit a kid and it felt good when I put him to the ice. I've been doing it since then."

Now going into his second year of bantam — and fourth season of bodychecking — Mills was on the receiving end of a bone-crunching hit this winter that left him with a concussion and derailed his season with Brandon's minor bantam team, the A&W Wheat Kings.

Even longtime hockey parents at the game said they hadn't previously witnessed such a severe check. It sent Mills head-first into the boards, said his mother Kim, who watched frantically from the sidelines during that mid-February game in Winnipeg.

"It was awful," she said. "We all thought there was no way Jace was going to get up. We thought, a broken neck maybe, or a stretcher (would be needed) or something. It was just a general gasp.

"It was one of those hits that no one wants to see happen. It was just an unfortunate timing with the space between (Jace and) the boards and the speed of the boy that was throwing the hit."

The Winnipeg Warriors' player who hit Mills received a game misconduct and an additional one-game suspension, Kim Mills said. "He had just returned from serving a suspension."

As much as Jace likes to throw checks, his parents say he does so cleanly.

"Jace hits a lot, but he's never been called for a hit from behind," said his father Dave. "You can be physical and aggressive and know when to stop."

Jace partly credits his football background for his knowledge of how to make a clean check on the ice.

"It's kind of simple," he said. "I think I learned from football, like, the proper contact. You don't rock someone from behind. You've got to go right at them. If it's a hit from behind, I don't like to be mean. Your team wouldn't like that, even, if you hit a kid from behind and got kicked out of the game."

Jace, at 5-foot-7 and 170 pounds, is a power forward who also plays defence, as he was during the game in which he was injured.

"It was a D-to-D pass in the neutral zone and the puck was ahead of me, so I tried to go get it and then I got hit," he said.

"When I hit the ground, it went all fuzzy sort of and it went black for a second. But I can't remember any pain. I got up and my coach was telling me to lay down, because he thought something was really wrong."

Jace, however, was able to leave the ice with minimal assistance and he stayed on the bench and in the game. But, on his next shift, he collided with a teammate and slammed into a goalpost.

"I ran into the post, and then I just skated off and sat in the dressing room until the end of the game," he said. "I just felt terrible. I didn't get sick, but I felt sick, for sure. I just wanted to go to sleep, pretty much, because my head was pounding."

Jace's doctor is the father of one of his teammates with the Bantam A Wheat Kings, so he was at the game and examined Jace in the dressing room and instructed him not to return to action that weekend. They scheduled a doctor's appoint-ment for Monday, two days after the hit.

"At that time, (the doctor) said, 'Don't prepare to play or don't plan to play for a while, because you're not going to,'" Kim said. "So that's what started my research, because Jace kept saying, 'My headache is gone. I feel good enough to play.' But it was quite the opposite."

Jace was not only off the ice, but he experienced concussion symptoms at home and in school.

"When I was reading, the words would sort of not come together," said the Grade 8 student. "Math was the worst because you're trying to focus and figure out the questions, but you can't. And then you get headaches because, I guess you could say, you're thinking too hard."

His parents were thinking, too, wondering what it would take for their son to regain his health. Kim began to research concussions and discovered that Jace's participation in math class might have been counter-productive to his recovery.

"It was, absolutely," she said in hindsight. "I was adamant that he had to go to school. You think you're a good parent and doing the right thing by saying, 'Go to school. You can't miss school. Come on.' I shouldn't have done that.

"But his school was good about it. We had to phone and say, 'He's got a headache, he's got a concussion and there's no way he can be active in phys ed.' The school was understanding. But they hadn't heard, either, that math was a factor (triggering concussion stress). Who knows? You've got to try to find that balance between school and sports and manage that."

At home, too, concussion symptoms caused discomfort for Jace.

"Even video games and TV, that kind of stuff early on was difficult," Kim said. "Sitting in a black room was the best (remedy) for the early onset."

At the same time, Jace was keen to return to the ice. After all, he's an active kid whose hobbies include snowboarding, skateboarding, biking and multiple school sports.

He attempted a hockey comeback when the local Directors Cup team began practising for the provincial development tournament for 1997-born players. He had been symptom-free for two weeks, but a recurrence of his headaches forced Jace to miss two big events that wrapped up the Wheat Kings' season — the Tournament of Champions in Brandon and the provincial championship in The Pas.

"It sucked," he said succinctly.

Eventually, he was able to practise and play with the Directors Cup team in late March to end a trying season on a positive note.

"With those good coaches, I learned more in those six weeks than I probably did in my whole season," Jace said. "And I improved a lot over that time, too."

As he returned to the ice, there were a few anxious moments for his parents.

"The first game back was hard to watch, just every hit," Kim said. "But by the second game, we were on stride. It was like it had never happened. He had forgotten about it."

Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition May 26, 2011

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

[hockeygod]

Hockey Canada calls for rule change on head hits

ALLAN MAKI Globe and Mail Published Friday, May. 27, 2011

Hockey Canada has called for rule changes to protect players from any contact to the head, both accidental and intentional.

President Bob Nicholson made an impassioned speech Friday at Hockey Canada’s annual general meeting outlining the need for a rule amendment to address all head contact. Nicholson spoke to hockey delegates gathered from across the country noting the rise in concussions over the past two seasons and insisting “our playing environment must promote fair play and respect.”

To help accomplish that, Nicholson asked the delegates to consider a proposal that would see changes made to the existing Checking to the Head rule 6.5. Instead, it would be called Head Contact and read as follows:

"In minor and female hockey, a minor penalty will be assessed to any player who accidentally contacts an opponent in the head, face or neck with their stick or any part of the player’s body or equipment. If the contact is intentional then it’s a double minor.

In junior and senior hockey, a minor and a misconduct penalty, or a major and a game misconduct penalty, at the discretion of the referee based on the degree of violence of impact, will be assessed to any player who checks an opponent to the head area in any manner. A major and a game misconduct penalty shall be assessed any player who injures an opponent under this rule.

A match penalty will be assessed to any player who deliberately attempts to injure or deliberately injures an opponent under this rule."

Hockey Canada first implemented a head-checking rule in 2004-05 but is asking for clearer, more defined guidelines in time for the 2011-2012 season. (The rule changes for junior and senior hockey would be held a year while the Junior Pilot Project gathers more data on blows to the head and dangerous hits.)

Delegates at the Hockey Canada AGM will break into council meetings Friday and Saturday and discuss the rule change., among other issues. A motion is expected to be presented Saturday.

Hockey Canada said it will begin an awareness campaign for players and coaches and will also produce videos to help educate people on how to reduce head contact.

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

[hockeygod]

Star investigation: What really killed NHL's Bill Masterton

Rob Cribb & Randy Starkman Toronto Star Staff Reporters Sat May 28 2011

It’s the most gruesome distinction in hockey: Only one player has ever died from injuries directly suffered in an NHL game.

When Bill Masterton’s limp body collapsed to the ice on Jan. 15, 1968, the Minnesota North Stars centre appeared to be the victim of an innocuous hit. Thirty hours later, he was dead in hospital.

Today his story is nearly forgotten, but for an annual NHL award that bears his name. It honours perseverance and dedication to hockey.

The irony is that perseverance probably killed Bill Masterton.

What happened in the days leading up to that fatal moment in Minneapolis, when Masterton played his 38th and final NHL game, has been largely a mystery.

But a Star investigation has uncovered evidence that an earlier, untreated concussion was likely responsible for Masterton’s death at the age of 29.

That injury was compounded by the age-old hockey code that preaches shake-it-off-and-get-back-out-there resilience in the face of pain, serious injury, even brain trauma.

“I’ve never said this to anyone before,” said Wren Blair, Masterton’s coach and general manager, now 85. “I’ve never thought that it had anything to do with that hit. I think he had a (pre-existing) cerebral brain hemorrhage.”

Those closest to Masterton concur he was suffering from a brain injury before he stepped on to the ice that night, as does a medical expert who reviewed an autopsy report obtained by the Star.

Minnesota goalie Cesare Maniago’s wife, Mavis, had a clear view of Masterton’s fall from her seat in the stands. She, too, believes something else was wrong with Masterton that night, something that explains why the routine bodycheck left him unconscious even before he hit the ice.

“I saw Bill’s head after he was just checked from behind and it just looked like his eyes were in the back of his head,” she said. “I thought he was out then and just went fast right down.”

While much in hockey has changed since Masterton died, one thing hasn’t: Playing hurt is a sacred principle.

“Billy” Masterton’s commitment to the game was bred in the bone.

A ritual unfolded every Saturday evening in the small Masterton home in Winnipeg’s East Kildonan neighbourhood: brothers Bill and Bob took a bath, slipped into pajamas and sat together in front of a tiny electric fireplace while listening to Foster Hewitt on the radio.

“We spent a lot of time dreaming,” said Bob. “But my brother was the worker and he had the ethic that you need to make the NHL.”

He didn’t just work on the ice. He was a rarity in the way he prepared for a life outside the game. He starred at the University of Denver from 1957-61, helping the Pioneers win three national collegiate titles and earning tournament MVP honours his senior year. More importantly, he earned a degree.

Masterton left pro hockey after two seasons when it appeared he’d never make the NHL. He pursued a master’s degree in business engineering, eventually joining technology giant Honeywell, where he worked on the financial end of the Apollo project. He settled in Minneapolis with his high school sweetheart, Carol, and they adopted two children, Scott and Sally.

In 1967, Masterton’s nearly forgotten hope of playing in the NHL re-emerged with the league’s expansion from six to 12 teams. The Montreal Canadiens, which owned his rights, traded them to Minnesota. Blair, in charge of the North Stars, came calling.

Bob Masterton remembers his brother telling him about the NHL offer over dinner. “I looked at him and said, ‘What are you going to do?’ because he was just starting a young family,” said Bob. “It was kind of one of those things where I asked the question but I knew what he was going to do. It was always in the back of his mind.”

The season started with promise: Masterton scored the first goal in North Stars history. But 37 games later, in the days leading up to the hit that would kill him, there were signs all was not right.

The night before the fatal game against Oakland, Masterton was at Maniago’s house with his family — Scott was 3 and Sally, 1 — helping the genial goaltender celebrate his 29th birthday with teammates.

In a quiet moment, Masterton made a rare admission to Maniago: He was struggling with the effects of a head check into the glass during a recent game.

“He had been complaining of headaches,” said Maniago. “He’d got hit and even that night he said ‘Gee, I’ve really been getting these migraines and they’ve been with me for about a week.’”

In several games prior to the tragedy, Blair had also noticed something strange.

“I’d said to our trainer, ‘Do you ever look at Billy when the game’s on?’” Blair recalled. “His face is blood red, almost purple. (The trainer) said, ‘Yeah, I notice that too.’ I said, ‘I wonder if we could have him checked. There’s something wrong.’”

Masterton, who was always quick to dismiss concerns, was never sent to a doctor.

“I’m fine,” he’d say, the mantra of a thousand hockey players.

Carl Johnson, assistant general manager of Minnesota’s farm team in Memphis, said he was told Masterton had blacked out while on line rushes during practice.

Former Edmonton Oilers coach John Muckler, who coached the North Stars’ farm club in Memphis that season, said he saw signs of trouble with Masterton in training camp.

“I really believe he was injured before the fatal blow. I know that in our training camp he got hit hard a couple of times. And he got hit a few games very hard at the NHL level. His aggressiveness got him.”

Masterton wasn’t big. But he played as though he was, said Muckler.

“He wasn’t the most talented guy in the world but he really wanted to play. . . . He wanted it badly. I’ve never seen a person work so hard. He’d never show when he got hurt. He never laid down.”

When he suffered the final hit of his career, Masterton was making his patented move — crossing the opposing blueline and cutting to one side before passing the puck to a teammate.

Oakland defencemen Larry Cahan and Ron Harris moved in to check Masterton, who wound up falling on the back of his head. One account holds that Masterton regained consciousness for a few moments and repeated the words, “Never again, never again,” before closing his eyes for the final time.

Neatly typed on Masterton’s 1968 autopsy report are the words, “Likely Cause of Death: Cerebral contusions” sustained from a “fall on ice.”

After reviewing the document, Dr. Charles Tator, a Toronto neurosurgeon and concussion expert, believes Masterton suffered “second impact syndrome,” a rare occurrence where a second concussion happens on the heels of a first concussion that never healed, causing rapid and severe brain swelling.

“We know the second hit can be fatal. The usual story is just as has unfolded here, that they can even talk a bit after that final hit and then they lapse into a coma,” Tator said. “There is evidence of massive brain swelling . . . that is out of proportion to the blow that he got. My interpretation is that the seeds of this catastrophic injury were sown days before.”

What makes hockey players hide their injuries and re-enter games knowing the next hit could spell ruin?

Fear, plain and simple, said Mike Walton, a Maple Leafs rookie when Masterton died.

“Injury wasn’t really of any importance in the sense that you didn’t want to lose your job and if you couldn’t play, obviously they had to fill their roster,” said Walton, now a real estate agent in Toronto. “It was a dictatorship. They had total control.”

While knowledge of concussions has increased dramatically since Masterton died, the warrior-like mindset of professional hockey players is everlasting, he said.

“It goes on today, there’s no question about it. The general public doesn’t understand the adrenaline, the passion, the dedication the players have to get out there and perform.”

Throughout his college career, right through to his training camp in Memphis, Masterton wore a helmet, a rarity in an age when head protection was dismissed by players and management alike. It disappeared during his 38-game career as an NHLer.

“I’ve always thought of this after, that when he complained (of headaches) at least he could have put on a helmet for a couple of days,” said teammate Wayne Connolly. “But it was frowned on, really.”

Only Andre Boudrias had the temerity to challenge it on Minnesota. He was traded the following season to Chicago.

“We were not allowed to wear helmets,” said J.P. Parise. “You would get traded if you did. It was a no-no in no uncertain terms. You were a yellow belly if you wore a helmet.”

Bill’s son Scott Masterton, now 46 with four children of his own, also believes that his father’s fate was sealed long before the night when the final blow was dealt.

“My mother, before she died, talked about it. He was having some headaches. My feeling is that he may have gotten a minor concussion playing or practising on some other day . . . and when he got hit the second time, he had that head whip and when that happens, you can go unconscious in that split second before you fall.”

He speaks with the authority of an athlete accustomed to putting his body at risk.

As a 29-year-old professional U.S. kickboxing champion, the younger Masterton’s career ended with a slip and fall in the ring against the then British champion on the very date — Jan. 15th — of his father’s death, also at the age of 29.

Their professional athletic careers may have ended with eerie similarity exactly 25 years apart. But from that moment forward, the echoes of his father’s life stopped. With a blown knee and broken bones, Scott stepped away from his sport.

“I knew it was time to stop.”

How much has changed in the NHL since Masterton’s limp body was removed from the Minnesota ice? What distant early warning does his death serve to the league and to the growing ranks of players suffering from the contemporary concussion epidemic in hockey?

Philadelphia forward Ian Laperriere is one of three final nominees for this year’s Masterton Trophy — despite not playing a single game in 2010-11 as he deals with post-concussion syndrome.

Like Masterton, Laperriere earned an unlikely place in the pros with grit. Twice last season, Laperriere took slapshots in the face. Still, he returned to play following lost teeth, hundreds of stitches and even the discovery of a spot on his brain visible on a CAT scan.

Laperriere’s brain was bleeding. But four neurologists cleared him to play after the spot disappeared.

“People said I was crazy, but I’m like, ‘They brought me here to show the young guys the right way,’” said the 37-year-old Laperriere, who had signed with Philly before the 2009-10 season.

His playing style has endeared him to hockey fans. Nowhere was that more apparent than during a standing ovation for Laperriere during Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against Boston last year. The scoreboard showed a video of Laperriere getting nailed in face with a puck in the opening series against New Jersey, blood pouring from a gash over his right eye.

As dramatic music replaced a play-by-play call of the incident, the video moved backwards in slow motion until just before Laperriere’s face absorbed the slapshot. The question flashed up on the big screen: “What if Ian didn’t believe in sacrifice?”

Laperriere acknowledged his career may be over, though he can’t bring himself to retire. He admits he lied to team doctors about his post-concussion issues in order to return for a shot at the Stanley Cup.

“If I had a slim chance to play, I’m going to play.”

That’s a philosophy that Scott Masterton views with the ambivalence of both a former competitive athlete and a man left fatherless at the age of 3.

He sees both nobility and short-sightedness in the demands placed on hockey’s most devoted players. He understands how passion and perseverance can deliver both glory and death.

“The idea that you persevere goes back to time immemorial. It’s a badge of honour,” he said. “It’s also the mindset that will shorten their lives and destroy their bodies. Men are the way men are.”

The Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey, will be awarded June 22.

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

[hockeygod]

KERRY FRASER: THOUGHTS ON THE TRAPEZOID – OR MARTIN BRODEUR – RULE

THN May 30, 2011

Kerry,

I'd like to know your thoughts on the trapezoid, aka the "Martin Brodeur rule". Some say it's an appropriate means to increase scoring chances via the dump in and prevent goalies from short-cutting that offensive opportunity, others say its a way of punishing a skill developed by one player/team in particular, and that the ability to start the play back up ice is in itself an offensive opportunity.
What do you say?
Thanks

Jeff Gendel

Hi Jeff:

What the advent of the trapezoid has achieved lies clearly within the question you posed. Truth is both scenarios you present have been achieved; albeit to varying degrees.

Let's first take a look back as to how we evolved to the restrictive trapezoid area that clearly limits all goalkeepers' ability to handle the puck.

In the early '90's I, along with several other referees, was invited to attend a summer meeting with team coaches and general mangers to discuss various points relative to the game. Protection of the goalkeeper was a topic on the agenda. The majority consensus from coaches and GMs was that as top goalies were getting harder to find, they could quickly become an endangered species if they weren't afforded "special protection."

Back then, even though a goalkeeper wasn't "fair game" just because he was outside his crease, he could be bumped – or even lightly checked – in a puck battle. Referees would call excessive or unnecessary contact with the goalie outside the paint, but the "policing" role was generally assumed by the goalkeepers' teammates. As a result of the "code," we had some pretty good "dust-ups" whenever contact with the goalkeeper occurred.

In the meeting, Edmonton Oilers GM Glen Sather expressed concerns about giving goalkeepers "no touch" status when they strayed from their crease. He referenced Ron Hextall, for one, who could pass the puck almost as well as any defenseman in the league. I totally agreed with Slats on this point. (Not only could Hexy snap a pass, he could shoot the biscuit with authority as evidenced by the two goals he fired into empty nets from 190 feet away during his career. Martin Brodeur falls into this category of exceptional puck handling goalies as well.)

Remember also that restraining on the forecheck was not only allowed, but coached. The bench would often yell "hold him up," allowing extra time and space for the goalkeeper or defenseman to field the puck and make a play. (Anybody remember "Obstruction"?)

As we moved forward with the "don't touch me" standard, goalkeepers like Dominic Hasek and Patrick Roy protected the puck and almost challenged an attacker to bump into them and draw a penalty. To this point, in a playoff series with the Washington Capitals, Dom held the puck in the corner and waited as an attacker approached him. At the last second Hasek moved the puck as the forechecker veered off after making an attempted stick check.

It looked like a yard sale after the "Dominator" threw himself to the ice with eyes focused on me expecting a penalty call. When I shook my head "no", Hasek picked up his previously discarded blocker and threw it at me as play moved up ice. My arm went up then and Hasek received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty; not the penalty that he was expecting.

Following a year off during the lock out to intensely study what was wrong with the game, the "New NHL" was invented. It was designed to create added scoring opportunities with speed through the neutral zone and on the forecheck, to reward skill and punish those who "obstructed" this initiative. Restricting puck handling goalies like Martin Brodeur, it was thought, would help contain the end zone attack and reduce the "dump the puck in- and ship it back out" potential.

Given the speed on the forecheck that the game now enjoys, defencemen are vulnerable when the goalkeeper can't support them on pucks that rest in the corner or outside the trapezoid.

Here's what I'd like to see Jeff: get rid of the trapezoid and reward goalies that are mobile and adept at handling the puck, both of which are special skills. Understand that with forechecker speed there is also assumed risks to the goalkeeper. Attackers will be on him quickly; especially if he ventures too far from home.

I also say pull back on the "no touch" philosophy and let the goalie assume some risk for leaving the sanctity of his crease. Rule 69.4 is very ambiguous and a part of the current problem. Please tell me what is "incidental" and "unnecessary" contact as you read this paragraph of the rule:
"A goalkeeper is not "fair game" just because he is outside the goal crease. The appropriate penalty should be assessed in every case where an attacking player makes unnecessary contact with the goalkeeper. However, incidental contact will be permitted when the goalkeeper is in the act of playing the puck outside his goal crease provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such unnecessary contact." (Appears to me that incidental is really unnecessary; especially if the goalie falls down or takes a dive.)

Please let me know when you figure out the difference in this depiction of the play. I'm not talking about running the goalie or even body checking him, but to allow for light contact in races/battles for the puck. If the goalie flops, then give him a diving penalty.

Reward the Brodeurs of the game that risk wandering far from the protection of their net. Those that aren't as skilled at it will expose themselves and stay closer to home or continue to work on their puck handling.

Get rid of the trapezoid Jeff; it hasn't accomplished what it was intended to do.

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

[hockeygod]

Heads, you lose
Hockey Canada bans head shots to reduce concussions

Scott Fisher, Calgary Sun, Sunday, May 29, 2011

It’s like dealing with a ticking time bomb.

You can either wait for it to go off and deal with the carnage, or take preventative measures to minimize the damage.

Hockey Canada has decided to go with the safer approach, banning all head hits.

Newly elected Hockey Canada board chairman Michael Bruni said the organization is intent on leading the way in the fight against concussions.

“It’s long overdue,” Bruni, a Calgarian, said of the zero tolerance stance Hockey Canada has taken against head shots.

“We had no choice but to show some leadership. This has been a lingering issue in the sport for a long time.”

Hockey Canada has implemented mandatory penalties for all hits — both accidental and intentional — at all levels of minor, junior (levels A, B, C and D), senior and female competition.

The new rules are not in effect in Canada’s three major junior circuits as the WHL, OHL and QMJHL are self-governing.

“We have to make this safe for the young kids,” Bruni said.

Bruni said the new penalties — ranging from a minor or double-minor up to a major and game misconduct — will act as deterrents.

But the true focus will be to instil a level of respect in young players.

“We have to look at the coaches and make sure they are coaching the game in a fashion so that it’s not intimidating.

“Everyone, including the parents, need to know this conduct is inexcusable.”

Bruni said action had to be taken for two reasons.

“First, people won’t participate.

“And second, something significant might happen. And once you get politicians involved, extreme measures will take place.”

While no one is against the idea of abolishing head shots, Bruni said he expects to hear some dissention.

“There are some people who are fundamentally adverse to rules,” he said.

“There may be some who will say that by doing this, we’ll be eliminating more than just head shots, and that it will take some of the aggressiveness away from the game.

“But I would hope they would be in the minority.”

With the game’s biggest star, Sidney Crosby, still recovering from a New Year’s Day concussion, head shots have received plenty of attention in the past five months.

“We hope these rules act as a catalyst to change attitudes,” Bruni said.

“We’re not just at a tipping point. We’re at a crisis point.”

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

[hockeygod]

Racking their brains – Repeat concussions take a toll on athletes, such as Matthew Barnaby, causing confusion, pain and fear

By Bucky Gleason, News NHL Columnist, Buffalo News.com, May 23, 2011, 5:20 PM

Matthew Barnaby still remembers his first visit to La-La Land, at which he arrived on a nonstop flight via Steve Searles' right hand during the 1991-92 season. Barnaby was carving a name for himself as a feisty 18-year-old winger for Beauport in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

If you thought Barnaby was a mouthy, pugnacious scrapper during his NHL career, you should have watched him in his early days. He had 29 goals and 66 points in 63 games in 1991-92, impressive numbers dwarfed by his 476 penalty minutes, including 33 fighting majors that accentuated his style over his ability.

He weighed 148 pounds when he reported to Sabres' training camp in 1992 and was involved in 13 fights in his first three days. He had 77 fights in junior, 27 in the American Hockey League and 185 more in the NHL. His eagerness to take on the world explains why, upon waking up in the dressing room from the Searles fight, he had an immediate response to this question:

"Are you ready to go?" coach Allain Chainey asked.

"Abso-freaking-lutely," Barnaby said.

He gained his feet, took a few wobbly steps and fell on his face like a newborn calf.

It marked the first severe concussion of Barnaby's career, but it was hardly the last. Now, with new research into head injuries and a growing list of athletes falling victim to them, he fears he could someday experience much bigger problems. Scientists who for years studied concussions found similarities among athletes who have suffered head trauma and varying degrees of brain damage.

The list of concussed athletes who failed to reach the average life span of a male in the United States is long and disturbing. Many weren't aware that they had problems until much later in life before suffering downward and sometimes tragic turns.

"Obviously, it's scary and it's nerve-racking when you hear about these things happening to people," Barnaby said last week. "Maybe 'scared' is the wrong word because I don't know. Not knowing is what's nerve-racking, but I live pretty well day to day. You just don't know. There's a chance we're all going to get cancer."

Barnaby's mentality was the same between his first major concussion and his last. The former Sabres winger estimated he had at least a dozen concussions in all, about half of which were diagnosed. It sounds about right. He played as if he had taken too many shots to the head. He was a loose cannon, an agitator, an instigator, a punk.

Here's a little secret: It was an act, an orchestrated approach to stay in the NHL by any means possible. He says he purposely took punches until his opponent grew tired so he could rally in the end. Remember his exit from Buffalo, when he ran his mouth until the Sabres could take no more and traded him to Pittsburgh? Contrived.

"When I was crazy and nuts, it was all calculated," Barnaby said. "I thought about it for hours, days and months. The trade thing [in Buffalo], I went home and thought about it. How can I make more money and how can I be used more effectively? It wasn't a knee-jerk reaction to be an idiot. I thought about these things. I weighed everything."

Perception doesn't always match reality.

Barnaby appeared to make a smooth transition into retirement. He was a natural as an analyst for ESPN and TSN. He was intelligent, insightful, witty, well-spoken and, of course, bold in his opinions. By most accounts, he had his life together after the cheering stopped.

Here's the irony: Barnaby came off like a kook when he played but actually had everything in order. When everything appeared to be fine, his life was a mess. The domestic dispute May 13 involving his estranged wife, the former Christine Cardarella, and her male friend appears to fall in line with other erratic behavior after he left the game.

Barnaby spent a night in jail and was released on his own recognizance. He would not comment on the case, which is pending.

Known as a good guy off the ice, Barnaby's behavior became unpredictable in the first two years after he retired in 2007. He was short-tempered and irritable, two qualities among many he now believes cost him his marriage and turned him into a different man. Looking back, he's convinced the concussions compounded problems he already had while adjusting to life after hockey.

During an interview in November, he did not solely blame the shots to his head for his problems, but he wondered if they were contributing factors.

"I was always cocky on the ice because that's the way I had to play, but when I left the rink I was always a good guy to my friends and my family," Barnaby said at the time. "And I lost that. I lost it. It happened right after I retired and after two bad concussions, back to back. There has to be a direct correlation between the two."

Recent research into concussions could support his theory.

"My attitude for two straight years changed who I was," he said. "I lost a sense of who I was for two years. I didn't like the father I was becoming. I didn't like anything. The biggest part of me is that I snap, and I snap on anything. I would have a temper. I've never been one to snap off [the ice]. I was totally away from my family and what I was proud to become. I got away from that."

The victims

The past two years, Barnaby said, have been better despite his recent marital issues. Others have experienced much worse. A study conducted by Boston University found evidence that appeared to link head trauma in sports with health issues and untimely deaths.

West Seneca native and former Pittsburgh Steelers tackle Justin Strzelczyk died in a chase with police that ended when he crashed his vehicle into a gasoline tanker on the Thruway.

Hard-hitting Eagles safety Andre Waters and Steelers offensive lineman Terry Long committed suicide several years after they retired.

Professional wrestler Chris Benoit killed his wife and son before committing suicide. University of Pennsylvania football player Owen Thomas killed himself. Steelers center Mike Webster died of a heart attack at age 50 after spending years homeless while battling depression and memory loss and becoming more violent.

Former Bears safety Dave Duerson, a man known for his intelligence before he headed into a downward spiral, committed suicide in February. In 2007, he testified for the NFLPA's player benefits board at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing, questioning whether his problems were related to football.

Doctors found evidence that all suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a disease that's caused by repeated hits to the head. Boston University released a study in which experts believe there's a direct link between head injuries and Lou Gehrig's Disease.

"I don't want to say that was the reason," Alicia Duerson, his ex-wife, told the Chicago Tribune shortly after his death. "I don't want to give a reason because I don't know. I only know what he told me: Get my brain to the NFL. I think there is something wrong with the left side of my brain.'"

The aforementioned are among the athletes whose families have donated samples of their brains for extensive examination to Sports Legacy Institute, which is working with BU. The nonprofit group was co-founded by former Harvard football player and pro wrestler Chris Nowinski, whose own career ended after several concussions. A few years ago, Nowinski started a movement to collect the brains of athletes upon their deaths. About 400 agreed to donate their brains to science. Barnaby said he planned to add his name to the registry.

"It's a shame it took so long because a lot of athletes have been suffering unnecessary brain damage along the way," Nowinski said. "It's certainly disturbing to look at the amount of destruction to the brain for contact-sport athletes, especially football players. Just to think that playing football as a young man can cause a disease that destroys your brain cells, destroys your being, in as early as your 30s or 40s, is disturbing."

On the same day Barnaby was arrested, New York Rangers tough guy Derek Boogaard was found dead in his Minnesota apartment. The 28-year-old had not played since suffering a concussion in December. A medical examiner ruled he died accidentally after mixing alcohol and oxycodone, a powerful painkiller. Was the concoction related to a deeper problem? His family donated his brain to BU, where doctors will examine his brain for CTE.

Late hockey tough guy Bob Probert, who had drug and alcohol problems before he died of an apparent heart attack at age 45, was found to have suffered from CTE.

Dr. Robert Cantu, who with Nowinski co-founded Sports Legacy, wonders if former Bills great O.J. Simpson is a living victim of CTE. Simpson's erratic and violent behavior is consistent with that of others who suffered from the disease.

"There's a brain I would love to study," said Cantu, a clinical professor of neurosurgery at Boston University School of Medicine and one of the nation's top sports concussion specialists. "I don't know, but I really wonder. With his inability to handle frustrating circumstances, violence and all that stuff, it could be.

"It's hard to know. I'm not suggesting I know the answer, but if and when the time comes I would give anything for him to be on our registry."

Experts said all irrational behavior cannot be blamed on CTE, but it also cannot be ruled out when it comes to athletes or others who have suffered multiple concussions. Cantu wondered if former NFL linebacker Junior Seau, who last year drove his vehicle off a cliff after a domestic dispute, could be suffering from the disease. Nobody knows for sure. Doctors cannot diagnose CTE in living people, leaving many unanswered questions until their deaths.

"It's difficult to connect brain disease to specific actions," Nowinski said. "We know when you look at the group, they're far more likely to be having memory problems, impulsive-control issues, behavioral problems and depression.

"When you combine those symptoms, it helps understand abnormal behavior. It makes sense that people are more susceptible to having these sorts of breakdowns, if you will, with this disease, but you can never say the disease caused them to kill themselves, for example."

Said Barnaby: "It's not the concussions that make me do anything. It skews your point of view or can give you a not-care attitude when you don't [recognize] what triggers it. I'm responsible for my actions. Concussions don't make you do anything. You're always responsible for you're own actions. Anyone who says they aren't is absolutely lying."

Primeau fears unknown

Former Flyers center Keith Primeau, whose career ended in 2006 with post-concussion syndrome, is among a growing number of athletes willing to donate their brains to Sports Legacy.

He still suffers from symptoms more than four years after his last one and has become one of the most vocal sports figures when it comes to identifying and treating brain injuries.

"I'm very realistic, and I know that I damaged my brain," Primeau said. "I've told my wife and children the same thing. I hope I'm here for a very long time. But there's also the reality that I damaged my brain. I'm not afraid of when it's going to turn but how quick it will be. I don't think it's going to be tomorrow, but you never know."

Primeau said he never contemplated suicide, but he wondered during his lowest moments if death was somehow a better option than living with concussion-related problems. He was essentially a recluse in his South Jersey home 18 months after his last blow. He once found himself crying uncontrollably over his fate.

"When you wake up every day and you have a headache, or you're in a fog, or your vision is blurred, or it's something that just doesn't feel right, it puts huge stress on your level of emotion," Primeau said. "I just broke down in tears. I couldn't believe I felt the way I did that far removed from the injury. It feels like it's never going to get better."

Solutions

The NHL years ago addressed the issue with guidelines teams and players were encouraged to follow. Players showing signs of a concussion must be examined by a doctor and be symptom free for a week before resuming activity.

The NFL, after years of loose guidelines, has become aggressive in monitoring shots to the head. Both leagues have issued fines and suspensions for head hits they deemed were deliberate against other players.

One key element of treatment is awareness. Former Bills quarterback Jim Kelly once prescribed a couple of beers for himself after getting dinged. Players for generations have dismissed concussions after making a quick recovery from getting their "bell rung." Cantu, the neurologist, said most don't know they likely suffered at least a mild concussion.

"I remember fighting Stu Grimson one night in Anaheim and playing the next night," former Sabres tough guy Rob Ray said. "I went out for warm-up [in Los Angeles] and couldn't turn left. All I could do was turn right and skate in circles. It's different now. Back then, you were so afraid of losing your job, so you sucked it up."

Nowinski pointed to a study that showed only 10 percent of all concussions are diagnosed. Fifty percent of football, hockey and soccer players have concussion symptoms every year, but only 5 percent are reported. In many cases, players don't realize they have had a concussion because their brains aren't properly functioning.

"Teammates almost always know when a guy is banged up," Nowinski said. "They have to report each other. If you knew your buddy could die if he stayed in the game and took another hit to the head, you're obligated to speak up."

According to SportsConcussions.org, 19 states have passed laws designed to manage concussions. Some include mandatory removal of athletes from any game or practice when a concussion is merely suspected, and the player would not be allowed to participate until he was cleared by a doctor. More than 20 other states, including New York, have similar bills pending. Congress is considering legislation that could become a national law.

Prevention is almost impossible given the nature of contact sports, but there are ways to dramatically reduce concussions. One way to limit them is decreasing the amount and intensity of hitting in practice.

"High school players are taking almost 2,000 blows to the head at over 20 G's [gravitational acceleration] per year with 75 percent happening in practice," Nowinski said. "You can change that tomorrow. You dramatically reduce that in practice and everybody's exposure is reduced by half. It's a simple solution."

Another is eliminating the macho mentality that often comes with athletes. Many on all levels are slow to acknowledge any injury because they want to prove their toughness, believe they can overcome pain, or fear losing their places in the lineup.

Experts say there's no connection between concussions and a lack of toughness. Simply, a brain injury is a brain injury. But it's not enough to stop everybody.

Fifteen years after his first concussion, Barnaby was playing for Dallas when he squared off with Anaheim winger Shawn Thornton, now with Boston, in what looked like an ordinary fight. Barnaby temporarily lost vision in his left eye, which hardly stopped him from charging Thornton later in the game and getting ejected.

Barnaby returned the next night and played six more games for the Stars. He had another fight against Phoenix's Josh Gratton on Jan. 9, 2007, before telling team doctors he had a few minor headaches.

In truth, he had lost vision again in the same eye. It was the last game of his memorable 14-year career.

"There's nothing I can do about it now," Barnaby said. "There's nothing preventative now. Time will tell, but I can't live my life every day thinking I might die because of it. It's not the way I live my life. If I die a few years earlier, I had a pretty damn good life."

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

[hockeygod]

Dan Hamhuis applauds Hockey Canada's ‘zero-tolerance’ on head shots

Donna Spencer Calgary – The Canadian Press – Monday, May. 30, 2011

Hockey Canada's hardened stance on head shots, aimed specifically at minor hockey players, got nods of approval from a couple of NHL players long past their minor-hockey days.

Canada's governing body of hockey voted in “zero-tolerance” measures strengthening penalties for head shots during its annual general meeting in Calgary on the weekend.

Starting next season, in minor and female hockey, any contact with the head will be penalized whether the contact is intentional or not.

An errant stick glancing off an opposing players's helmet, for example, should no longer be overlooked, but is a two-minute minor.

Penalties can now escalate to a double minor and to a major and a game misconduct at the discretion of the referee depending on the violence of head contact.

“I think it's a good step if you can instill that in young players' minds at an early age, just for them to have that awareness out there, always knowing where a guy's head (is) and how dangerous it is for head injuries,” Vancouver Canucks defenceman Dan Hamhuis said Monday.

Hamhuis, whose Canucks were preparing to face the Boston Bruins in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final Wednesday, suffered two concussions this past season.

“If you get it ingrained in players early and get their habits changed, it will be a good thing,” he added.

Canucks teammate Aaron Rome sat out the last two games of Vancouver's Western Conference final versus San Jose. He was hit hard by Sharks' forward Jamie McGinn in Game 3 of the series and appeared to be concussed, but has been cleared to play in the final.

McGinn received a boarding major and a game misconduct. Rome gave Hockey Canada's new policy a thumbs-up.

“It should be taught from a young age that you respect the other guys on the ice,” Rome said. “It's good, especially starting at a young age, that they can't target or hit a player's head.”

The penalty “head contact” will replace “checking to the head” next season.

Previously, a checking-to-the-head penalty in minor hockey was typically a two-minute minor and a 10-minute misconduct. Now, a player can be booted from the game.

While discipline for head shots at the junior and senior level has been amalgamated under the title of head shots, the penalties at those levels remain the same, according to Hockey Canada manager of officiating Todd Anderson.

So in Junior A, B, C, D and senior hockey, a minor and a misconduct, or a major and a game misconduct can be assessed at the discretion of the referee. Also, a major penalty and game misconduct, or a match penalty, can be given to a player who injures an opponent under the head-contact rule.

“The junior and senior application has been in existence since we brought in checking to the head,” Anderson explained. “It's just re-worded to include the minor and female.

“In junior and senior, you're just going to see, instead of a check-to-the-head penalty, it's just going to be known now as a two (minutes) and 10 (misconduct) for head contact. It's consistent for the rules they're playing under now.”

Penticton Vees head coach Fred Harbinson says he's lost an NHL-drafted player in the first round of B.C. junior league playoffs each of the last two years. The reason? Concussions via a hit to the head.

Harbinson says Hockey Canada's new policy was a topic of discussion in the Vees office Monday morning.

“Anything we can do to eliminate some of these head shots, we're going to support and I think you have to start at the young ages,” Harbinson said.

“It will be interesting to see how they call it in the future. We want more and more kids in our game. You see guys like Sidney Crosby not finishing the year and big names like that, all of a sudden parents are getting a little nervous about putting their kids in hockey and that's the last thing we want to see.”

Harbinson is concerned more judgement calls have been added to the referee's plate under the new rules.

Hockey Canada is preparing educational materials to distribute mid-July to officials, parents and players, according to chief operating officer Scott Smith.

“We need to do some work to make sure fans and parents know what we're trying to accomplish and know what we're going to call, and hopefully that will help us manage some of the emotion that comes with a new rule change,” he said.

“Our whole approach is to make the game as safe as possible for young players and to make we're doing everything we can to develop respect amongst young players. We're comfortable the rule changes we have move us in that direction.”

Calgary midget triple-A coach Keith Fagnan says minor hockey coaches will be motivated to teach players checking minus head contact because the penalties are now harsher.

“I do think it's a good thing because it puts the onus back on the coaches to make sure they're teaching checking properly and making sure guys go right back to the fundamentals,” said the head coach of the Calgary Northstars.

Hockey Calgary president Perry Cavanaugh acknowledged young referees will need guidance on how to call head contact penalties. He also hopes that parents and players will take it upon themselves to find out about the new policy before the season starts.

“I encourage parents to take the time to get a copy of the rule and to sit down and discuss it with their son or daughter and if they have questions to contact their local minor-hockey association seeking clarification,” Cavanaugh said.

“This is a critically important initiative and everyone needs to be fully aware going into the season what the expectations are.”

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

[hockeygod]

Looks like head shots are turning political… or is this sour grapes?

Murdoch wants heads to roll over hits to head

By Bill Walker, Owen Sound Sun Times, May 31, 2011

Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Bill Murdoch has called for Dave Branch's head.

Murdoch stood up in the provincial legislature in Toronto on Tuesday and called for Branch, who is the president of the Canadian Hockey League and commissioner of Ontario Hockey League, to resign for failing to adequately protect the players at the 2011 MasterCard Memorial Cup.

"If there is any honour left in the officials of the 2011 Memorial Cup and the OHL commissioner Dave Branch, they should resign for failing to protect one of Canada's most precious assets — our talented young hockey players," Murdoch said on Tuesday according to the official Hansard report.

Murdoch was expressing the outrage many Owen Sound Attack fans felt after sniper Joey Hishon and captain Garrett Wilson were both lost to head injuries during the Memorial Cup.

"Canada is known around the world for producing the best players the sport has to offer, but the future of our young stars is in jeopardy," Murdoch said.

"Junior hockey officials, namely OHL commissioner Dave Branch and the Memorial Cup's discipline chair Brian O'Neill, are failing to protect Ontario's most talented players."

Hishon was hit late in the third period of the Attack's 5-0 tournament opening win over the Western Hockey League champion Kootenay Ice.

The 19-year-old Stratford native was cutting across the middle of the ice when Ice captain Brayden McNabb caught the Attack centre with a vicious elbow to the head.

McNabb was given a major for elbowing and ejected from that game. He was subsequently given a one-game suspension.

Wilson was knocked out of action less than five minutes into Owen Sound's 3-1 loss to the St. Michael's Majors in Owen Sound's third game at the tournament.

He was standing facing the boards when the Majors' Chris DeSousa hit the Elmvale native from behind, driving his head and shoulders into the boards.

Wilson played two more shifts before linemate Andrew Fritsch alerted Attack trainer Andy Brown that the team captain was repeating the same question over and over on the bench. He was removed from that game and did not return.

DeSousa was not penalized on the play and the Attack's appeal for supplementary discipline was rejected.

Both Hishon and Wilson suffered from concussion-like symptoms. Hishon did not play another tournament game and Wilson sat out Owen Sound's 7-3 loss to Kootenay in the tiebreaker which eliminated the Attack from the Memorial Cup.

"There is no doubt that physical play is a key feature of the game," said Murdoch. "There is no excuse, we're allowing dirty players to get away with vicious, illegal hits to the head."

He added: "The future of Canada's game and its young stars is in danger from poor officiating and out-of-touch OHL management that fails to consider the future of the game and safety of its players."

Murdoch said the Attack succeeded despite the officiating.

"Despite incompetent and corrupt officiating, the Attack not only clinched its first OHL championship but captured some of the game's highest honours," said Murdoch.

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

[hockeygod]

The NHL blew it in Atlanta
Why didn't hockey work in Atlanta? It's tough to sell a game that isn't good

By STEVE BUFFERY, QMI Agency, June 1 2011

TORONTO – Yes, the great NHL shell game continues.

The Atlanta Thrashers have now gone the way of the California Golden Seals, Kansas City Scouts, Cleveland Barons, Hartford Whalers, Atlanta Flames, and, yikes, the Winnipeg Jets … and those are just some of the relocations that have occurred in my lifetime.

And I’m not that old (compared, to say, a mature Norwegian Spruce).

“Step right up and pick a city. Sorry sir, you lose. Try again.”

Is this a league founded on smoke and mirrors, or what?

Sure, every professional sports loop in North America has had its share of relocations. But the NHL seems to have made it an art form.

Here’s my take on the move of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg — a “Canadian outpost” as one Atlanta columnist called it on Tuesday.

The NHL failed Atlanta more than Atlanta failed the NHL.

It’s the product.

The product is simply not good enough.

There, I said it. Let the bitterness flow.

Look, if you’re a business person and you introduce a product to a new market and the product is truly exceptional, then you will be able to sell that product.

Doesn’t matter if it’s doughnuts, brasseries or pucks. If the product is great — as the NHL promised when it ventured into places like Atlanta and Florida and Phoenix — then people would buy it, even people who didn’t grow up with the product.

But NHL hockey is no longer a great product.

Some playoff games have been great, yes. But that’s more to do with the intensity than anything else.

For those of us who grew up playing and loving the sport, it’s hard to turn our back on the NHL. It’s like an old pair of skates. They hurt your feet and sometimes the puck gets stuck between the blade and the boot, but you can’t throw them away.

But for people in non-traditional markets, people who consider hockey the domain of toothless hose heads, dour Scandinavians and gloomy Russians, the sport is lacking big-time.

Otherwise, they would have jumped whole-heartedly on the bandwagon.

There aren’t enough goals. There aren’t enough open-ice plays. There are too many defensive schemes and systems. Honestly, if NHL hockey was truly great, do you the league would have tinkered with the game as it has in recent years? They’ve brought in rule changes to open the game up — two-line passing, the tag-up off-side rule, cracking down on hooking and holding, etc. It’s all good. But it’s not enough — especially if you have to sell the game in markets where other recreational activities rule, like NFL football, or big-time college sports.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again … the biggest problem is that the NHL is too diluted. There’s not enough talent for the number of teams. The talent pool is not deep enough. Hockey draws from a very limited number of places, particularly compared with basketball, soccer, baseball. There simply isn’t enough talent to support 30 teams.

Sports fans aren’t idiots. They can see that.

And I don’t buy that argument that winning solves anything.

Yes, winning helps, but you should be able to survive in a viable market even if your team goes into prolonged slumps. There should never be the threat of relocation just because a team continually fails to make the playoffs. If that’s the case, then the market isn’t right. When you have winning teams, you have losing teams. A healthy league can survive that.

The NHL will never be truly healthy if, year in and year out, there is talk of relocation and teams bleeding money.

Relocation fees are nice, sure, but they’re a sign of a sick market.

Every week, in years past, when I received my Sports Illustrated in the mail (thank you Wee Willie), I got riled up at the lack of NHL coverage.

I even contemplated sending a letter to the editor a few times, like an old crank Bubba professes me to be.

But the more you look at what the NHL has become, it becomes clearer that the league truly gets what it deserves.

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

[hockeygod]

Sweden's hockey hotbed

JANNE BENGTSSON
Ornskoldsvik, Sweden— Special to Globe and Mail Update
Published Tuesday, May. 31, 2011

A Swedish TV show once tried to resolve how the small town of Ornskoldsvik produced so many NHL players, and wound up suggesting that it had to be something in the water.

The hometown of the Sedin twins, Ornskoldsvik, or O-vik as it is usually shortened to, has a population of only about 30,000, is situated at Hoga Kusten (the High Coast) some 600 kilometres north of Stockholm, and is on the UNESCO world heritage list. Water is important to the city, but it is not the reason for its success in hockey.

Over 20 NHL players have come from the city over the years, including Thomas Gradin and Anders Hedberg, Peter Forsberg and Markus Naslund, and today's Henrik and Daniel Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks.

O-vik has been a hockey hotbed since the generation of 1973. A bunch of first-class talent headed by Forsberg and Naslund – who are now assistant general manager and GM of Modo, respectively – pushed each other at every organized and unorganized practice. It was all about wanting to be the best then, and now.

The city's sports culture revolves around Modo, O-vik's elite league team. In popularity, the Vancouver Canucks are the only hockey team that comes close.

It's all about tradition: Thomas Gradin left Modo and O-vik to play for the Canucks. So did Lars Lindgren, and local hero Lars Molin. Naslund followed. As did the Sedin twins.

“It's little known but still a fact that [Vancouver defenceman] Alexander Edler also went through the Hockey Gymnasium [high school] here,” says Par Hagglund, sports editor at the local newspaper.

Anders Melinder, principal at the Hockey Gymnasium in Ornskoldsvik, sees no rational explanation to the 1973 class beyond luck. All the good players were at the same place at the same time.

“It will be long before we see a generation of players like that again, if ever,” said Melinder, who also coached the young Sedin twins.

O-vik is a hockey town. The talk of the town is hockey.

“Hockey is the only sport played in O-vik. It's a traditional thing. When you grow up you basically chose between hockey or no sport at all,” Hagglund says.

So O-vik is for Vancouver. And about hockey. Soccer, by far the most popular sport in Sweden, is a no-no in O-vik. The best team, Anundsjo IF, plays in the fourth division, and the most famous team from the region, Friska Viljor, is even worse: the fifth division.

Even the Sedin twins' mother, a soccer fan, resigned herself to the sport years ago.

“I prefer soccer – it's a more pleasant sport,” Tora Sedin says. “Daniel and Henrik also qualified for the soccer [high school] in Norrkoping [some 800 km south of O-vik] but it was an easy choice for them … hockey in O-vik.”

Hockey is also about politics and big business in the city. O-vik is and always has been socialist-leaning, with the Social Democrats and the Left Party traditionally securing their majority in the city council. In Sweden, where the left has always been more supportive of the local sports, the majority in O-vik has been a firm ground for local sports leaders – the city is always there to help the team if things go wrong. After all, the Modo Hockey Club is considered the foremost face of the city of O-vik.

And on the other side, the local big employer, the Mo & Domsjo paper mill, not only gave the name to the hockey team, but also from the very start jobs to the players and an opportunity to practise during working hours – like when Modo won its first Swedish championship in 1979.

“The city has always been proud of Modo,” Hagglund says. “It has always used the team as a marketing tool, so it really was an issue at the highest political level when the team struggled last season.”

That struggle ended in April with Modo playing the Qualifications series, with the last two teams from the Elitserien, and the four best from the Allsvenskan (the All-Swedish). Due to an inspired effort from, among others, former New York Ranger Niklas Sundstrom and ex-Pittsburgh Penguin Mattias Timander, Modo managed to end up in second place to secure another year in the Elitserien.

Naslund, who together with Forsberg played for free in Modo to help the team to avoid the Qualification series in 2009, acted as the general manager of the team in the last and critical weeks of the last season.

“If Modo would have lost its spot in the Elitserien … there's only one word for it: catastrophe,” Naslund says. “Hockey is so important for the city, the city itself evolves around hockey.”

Just a couple of weeks after the season, it was officially announced that Naslund would take over as the general manager. Naslund started by persuading Forsberg to become an assistant GM. And the duo then went on to hire Ulf Samuelsson as head coach of the team.

Modo is in for a new start.

And it has nothing to do with the water.

Janne Bengtsson is the hockey reporter for Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet in Stockholm. Special to The Globe and Mail

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

[Author]

Posts