The Canada-U.S. Olympic gold medal showdown in men’s ice hockey had all the ingredients for a game people will be talking about for ages: nail-biting intensity, a come-from-behind push that saw the States force overtime with only seconds remaining, and a photo finish care of Canadian poster boy Sidney Crosby.
The gold-medal game was a perfect representation of Olympic hockey: fast-paced, hard-hitting and skilled, but without the dirty hits and roughhousing that are commonplace in the NHL.
Yet exactly one week after Crosby’s golden moment, his NHL teammate made headlines for injuring Boston Bruins centre Marc Savard. Matt Cooke delivered a blindside hit to Savard’s face. Savard was knocked momentarily unconscious and removed from the ice on a stretcher.
Savard is back practicing with his team, but the incident has left NHL brass with a major headache.
The league’s 30 general managers met March 8-10 for their three-day annual general meeting, and the issue of headshots was high on the agenda.
As incidents of headshots and dirty hits resulting in serious injuries continue to rise, all parties agree the puck has to stop somewhere. But disputes still remain when it comes to who should clean up the leagues: players, commissioners or legal authorities.
Criminal charges in professional and semi-pro hockey are rare, but happen.
In 2004, criminal charges were laid when then-Canuck Todd Bertuzzi punched Steve Moore.
Bertuzzi’s counsel negotiated a conditional discharge and, after serving 80 hours of community service, he has returned to the NHL where he now plays for the Calgary Flames.
More recently, Patrice Cormier of the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, Canada’s captain in the last International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, dropped jaws earlier this year when he beelined off the bench to deliver a head-hunting elbow straight to the face of Quebec Remparts’ Mikael Tam during a game in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL).
Tam hit the ice and began convulsing in seizures. He was later diagnosed as suffering from head trauma but is beginning to recover. Cormier was suspended from the league indefinitely and will finish his final year of semi-pro play barred from the ice. However, the 19-year-old has already secured a contract with the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and is slated to play professionally next season. Police have not reported that they will be taking any legal action against him.
Head shots like the one Cormier delivered are banned in both Olympic and professional hockey. However, as hockey fan, former player and Canadian Hockey League writer Farhan Devji explained, Olympic rules offer no wiggle room if a player delivers a blow to the head; rule breakers are removed from the game and possibly the tournament. The NHL is much more lax.
Devji said the men’s hockey tournament at the Vancouver Games “was the most exciting hockey I have ever seen, even though [the rules] are really strict on head shots. In terms of [penalizing players] I think the NHL and other leagues need to stiffen up their rules.”
Christopher McNaught, a lawyer and Careleton law professor, said the ideal solution when dealing with players who break the rules and engage in dangerous or dirty hits would be self-regulation.
He said if team owners and league commissioners were willing to commit whole-heartedly to cleaning up the game through serious penalties and drastic consequences, police would not need to interfere.
“Self-regulation is always better, but owners today don’t have the right mentality to let the courts step aside,” he explained.
Part of the problem is many leagues only hand out strong penalties if the player on the receiving end of a cheap shot is badly hurt.
This discretion, Devji said, makes things harder to police.
“The result of the hit shouldn’t play into a suspension. [Officials need to] judge the act based on the act,” he said.
This thinking is in line with the law. McNaught pointed to the legal principle of the thin-skulled man, which states it doesn’t matter how well a victim can recover from or endure an offence. According to this principle, if a hit that would leave most players on their feet leaves one unconscious, it’s still a crime every time.
“Head shots are head shots. What hockey needs is consistency and a blanket cultural change,” he explained.
Christian Bourdeau-Mifflen, who plays defence for the Ravens, said you can be a physical player without being a dirty one. Hockey players know they may get roughed up while they’re on the ice, but no one expects to be carried off the ice in a stretcher after an elbow to the face or a stick to the neck. He said this is because while hits may be part of the game, excessive violence is not.
But some leagues are taking the issue of headshots very seriously. Brian Kilrea, now general manager of the Ottawa 67s, coached in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) for 35 years, and said under the guidance of Commissioner David Branch, the game has never been cleaner.
“Branch has issued some heavy suspensions, which is good for the protection of players and their safety,” Kilrea explained. “The game is more controlled now [because] everyone wants to take [headshots] out of the game.”
Branch implemented a no-headshots rule five years ago, which automatically sends players to the box on a two-minute penalty if contact to the head is made. At the time the rule was implemented, many of hockey’s big-wigs, including NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, voiced concerns the ban would change the game and reduce the number and intensity of hits. Branch was unavailable for comment on the matter, but Kilrea said OHL hockey is as physical as ever, it is just safer.
Another league that takes a no-nonsense approach to fighting, dirty hits and headshots is Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS). CIS East All-Rookie Team award winner Bourdeau-Mifflen said he is glad his league is looking out for him, and while rules against headshots are good, most of the time they are unnecessary.
“You don’t ever go out there with the intentions of hurting someone,” he said. “There are a few bad incidents in such a short period of time and that makes it look worse than it is.”
Devji said hockey players have developed an unwritten set of rules, guidelines they call “the code,” based on honour and an understanding of the game. When police officers and lawyers who don’t understand the game or the code enter the scene, they can cry foul where none occurred.
“I think it’s a part of the game, it always has been and always will be. That’s how it should be . . . it allows the players to self-police,” Devji explained.
When players do cross the line, Bourdeau-Mifflen said amateur and semi-pro leagues are adept at handling the situation without police intervention. He points to the QMHL’s swift suspension of Cormier after his head shot and said his expulsion from the league will keep other players from making the same sorts of plays.
“It’s a pretty severe incident and it was pretty blatant, so I think with things like that [the league] needs to make an example and show players that kind of stuff doesn’t belong in the game,” Bourdeau-Mifflen said.