It's Time for the NHL to Ban All Contact to the Head

Each spring we see the best of NHL hockey. That insane intensity level jump, the double overtime goals, Gary Bettman being booed, and some barely-average goalie doing a 1971 Ken Dryden impression. On the other hand, we have blown calls, no calls to "let the boys play" and at least three times as much Don Cherry and Pierre McGuire. (And in both categories: we have Brad Marchand. Fuck that guy. He rules.)

But the worst part of the NHL playoffs is watching one player after another go down with an "upper body injury" which in many cases means a concussion.

As I write this, it appears the NHL's latest victim of headhunting season is the Pittsburgh Penguins' Brian Dumoulin. And the perpetrator is repeat offender Tom Wilson of the Washington Capitals. Of course, the play wasn't called on the ice. It wasn't called by the ironically named, and completely mercurial, Department of Player Safety. Dave Lozo goes over it in more detail here but in short, it probably went unpenalized because Dumoulin moved his head prior to the hit and therefore, contact was deemed to be incidental.

As Rule 48.1 of the NHL rulebook explicitly states: "This is hockey, it's OK to blame the victim." (OK, actually it outlines when hits to the head are excusable including if the receiver on the head shot "put himself in a vulnerable position." So not far off.)

But here's a crazy idea, why not make all hits to the head illegal?

It's not a new idea. Dryden, the legendary goalie/lawyer/author/politician/activist, made his case for it last month in The Players' Tribune, writing:

Some purists will whine that you're taking hitting out of the game (which wouldn't be true) and that you can't blame guys for accidents (although the league already does this by penalizing players for non-intentional infractions, like errant high sticks and shooting the puck over the glass).

The NHL has the best players on the planet. They'll learn to adjust their hitting, just like they (eventually) adjusted to slashing their opponent's $300 sticks and not being able to clutch and grab throughout the neutral zone. Rugby bans hits above the shoulders and last I checked, that sport is still beautifully violent, so players are still gonna bang along the boards.

Hits to the head, accidental or not, are already penalized by Hockey Canada, meaning many of the young players coming into the league grew up with the rule. (This doesn't apply at the junior or senior level, though, which is where it would matter the most.)

The NHL has a concussion problem, I don't think anyone would disagree with that assessment. And that's the simple reason why hits to the head need to be banned. We have a much better understanding today than we did a decade ago about the permanent damage head injuries can cause.

About 150 former players are suing the league, saying the NHL knew about the long-term effect of head injuries and did little to protect players. The case could become a class-action one, meaning 5,000 former players would automatically be enrolled in it. If the NHL loses, the financial costs could be astronomical to the league.

Of course, the human cost already is.

Derek Boogaard, Steve Montador, Bob Probert. All tough guys, all dead far too young.

Then there are guys like Dan Carcillo, a retired 33-year-old and two-time Cup champ with Chicago. His nickname was "car bomb," which makes sense for a guy with 1233 career penalty minutes and 48 goals. But now he's a "Mental Health and Concussion Advocate," according to his Twitter bio and has spent this spring using that platform to chirp at the league.

"Mamma, don't you let your babies grow up to play in the NHL," he wrote on Twitter in regards to the Wilson hit earlier this week.

In a devastating (and frankly, disturbing) 10-post thread on April 28, Carcillo laid into both the league and the NHLPA. It's worth reading in full, but he says he's been diagnosed with depression post-retirement after experiencing symptoms like "anxiety, headaches, sensitivity to light, lack of sleep, debilitating neck pain, slurred speech and suicidal thoughts."

It ends by him saying the NHL has "blood on its hands."

The initial tweet got only 24 retweets. As far as I can tell, the only other player or ex-player who said anything on Twitter in support was Nick Boynton.

I'm pretty heavy in hockey Twitter and feel pretty comfortable saying it made zero impact among the fan base.

And I get it, it's all too easy to turn a blind eye to the ugliness underneath something you enjoy (hello, steak, you are delicious but I'm sorry about the cow). I consider myself part of the "new school" of hockey fans. I'm happy that one-dimensional goons are virtually gone from the league and although I'm calling for headshots to be banned, I know I'm complicit in this, too. I've never turned the TV off when a fight breaks out (even if it was fucking Tanner Glass, ruining my beloved Rangers). I've cheered for guys clearly returning to the ice when they should be in the locker room receiving medical help. I've argued "they are adult millionaires, they can make their own decisions." Hell, like most Canadian farm boys, I've thrown dozens of dangerous hits and felt fine about it—minus the penalty—because "it's all part of the game."

But it really shouldn't be and as a fan, I should do better. How many games do we need to lose Sidney Crosby or Auston Matthews to in their prime due to concussions, let alone the guys who have to retire early, spend their days in a dark room or in the worst cases, die.

You'd think that the teams would think this way, too, and that protecting their most valuable assets would be of the utmost importance. And, after all, it's not like Bettman completely controls the rulebook. General managers can recommend rule changes, the NHL/NHLPA competition committee signs off and the team owners make final approval at the Board of Governors. Obviously, that's a lot of moving pieces but you would hope fans and teams would both prefer for the best players to be on the ice and not in the dark room.

The NHL can put an end to much of this stupidity (it is just a game, even if it's the best one) with a simple rule change, although that might be expecting a lot from a league that's never been the greatest caretaker for the game. Maybe—and I know this is too bloody earnest—it's time for fans to make themselves heard on head shots, or at least start expressing more empathy for the guys that receive them, even if they aren't playing on your favourite team.