The NHL’s lack of regulation

Hockey is a sport played across the world. It ranges from Town Leagues, to National Leagues. This sport is enjoyed by people all over, of all age ranges, but recently it has started to pose a safety question. A safety question of are we putting our players in danger by not regulating on the ice as much as we could. Safety is defined as a condition of being protected or unlikely to cause danger, risk, or injury. Now you may be asking yourself aren’t all National League sports dangerous? The answer would be yes; however, the statement I am making is that Hockey is the most dangerous of all National League sports. Hockey has become extremely dangerous especially when it comes to the safety equipment our players are using, as well as the extreme violence that occurs during a hockey game.

Hockey is the only National League sport that involves a very sharp blade for the duration of the game. While the blade is not intended for misuse or injury, there have been times in which it has inflicted injury or even death. In an article from NPR, it gives the gruesome details of a former NHL star’s death due to a blade accident on the ice. Adam Johnson, a former NHL player, tragically died on the ice after a collision with an opponent where the blade unfortunately struck Johnson’s neck. He then bled out on the ice in front of everyone in the stadium. The lack of neck gear provided during the game could have completely changed the outcome of this event, an act of safety is not something one would use to describe what happened. 

As a fan in the stands, imagine seeing your favorite playing bleed out on the ice due to an injury during the game. An otherwise healthy adult male bleeds out in front of 20,000 people due to a lack of neck gear. The trauma this not only causes the fans, but the families of the players this occurs to is despicable. The neck gear that could have saved this man’s life is not required by the NHL, had it been a life would have been saved among many others.

Most people enjoy watching a Hockey game not only for the love of the game, but for the thrill of it. It is an exciting part of the game when you see two players get into a fight on the ice. It is also reassuring when you see a Referee break up the fight before someone gets seriously injured, but that is not the case in all circumstances. An academic journal contained the story of how a Hockey Players career ended due to a fight on the ice. During this fight Steve Moore was struck in the back of the head then his face was pounded into the ice. The result of this was the loss of a career, and the penalty for it was a suspension and forfeit of pay. Had there been more regulation when it comes to the referees stepping, the injuries in this case would have been far less substantial.

The question we should ask ourselves is why there was no intervention while this was happening. The refs are there to regulate the game and make sure it is played correctly. They are also supposed to step in when a fight gets too intense. For this reason, there is no explanation to why no one stepped in, this caused something similar to a domino effect. A fight occurs, the referee does not step in, a player is seriously injured. If a refs job in the NHL is to regulate the game and make sure everyone follows the rule and stays safe, why are all of these injures occurring during the game. A refs judgment should not come to effect when an injury has already occurred, it should come into play as soon as they sense that something is is going to happen resulting in a injury, such as when two players start charging at each other on the ice.

Making a change to a dangerous sport is not something out of the ordinary. A rule was changed in the NFL relating to tackling and blocking. In the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine they explain the good outcomes that come with changing regulations. Prior to this change in 1968 there were 36 fatal injuries, as well as 30 paralyzing injuries. By 1990 there were 0 fatalities as a result of playing National League Football, this would be the first time there were 0 fatalities since 1931. 1 change in the rules changed the life of so many people and the people to come after them. If the NFL was able to create more regulation and still have an enjoyable game, the NHL should be doing the same thing. A change like this in the NHL could result in a safer yet still enjoyable game. 

Something the NHL has introduced is fines when you receive a penalty. Whilst this may make you not want to commit an act that could result in a penalty, it does not stop you from doing so. Therefore unless the penalty fines are so substantial in which it causes one’s concern of financial status it is simply useless. Most Hockey players make millions of dollars per season, so a fine costing a couple thousand dollars is not going to phase them. 

Sports is something that brings people together. This means that safety should be more of a concern when it comes to playing a National League Game. Dangerous is not a word that is used lightly, so that means when something is considered dangerous it should not be dealt with lightly. There are many solutions that could be put in the NHL world to just simply reduce the risk of fatalities on the ice. 

National League Hockey is one of America’s favorite sports. People from not only the US, but also boarding countries across the world find hockey to be a sport to be a daily pleasure to watch. Going to see your favorite team in action, as well as seeing your favorite players skate around the ice is a treasure to hockey fans. No one goes to a hockey game expecting to see their icon walk off the ice and never return to the game. However an injury on the ice could not only sadden the fans, but also hurt the player enough that they are out of the game for weeks, or even forever. In a memoir written by Clint Malarchuk, a former goalie for the Buffalo Sabres, he explains the horrific event that caused his to end his career. Malarchuck was playing in a game when his throat was cut open by a blade. What he thought was minor when it happened, ended up being something extremely serious. His jugular vein was cut open, causing his to bleed on the ice in front of thousands of people. While he survived due to fast medical operations, it was something that could have been avoided. A protective neck guard could have prevented this. Clint has not played hockey since the accident, and how suffers from PTSD because of it.

A Hockey player tends to spend their whole adolescent life playing hockey and preparing for the National League teams. From the time a child starts playing hockey, safety is at the top of learning subjects. During the Junior League players are required to wear full covering helmets. This helps to prevent facial fractures during the game. Adults, as young as 18 make it to the NHL, because they are so young their bones may not have fully developed or fused together by the time they get to play at their first National League game. When they move up to the big league the helmets get a little different, it is only covering their head and their eyes. An article from Sage Journals explains how this causes more facial features during the game when a collision happens on the ice. 73.5 out of 1000 players contracted a facial injury during a game wearing an NHL regulated helmet. However only 16 out of 1000 players received a facial injury due to the fact that they were wearing a fully covering helmet. This number is significant enough to make you think about the real effects wearing a half shield has on a player compared to a full covering helmet.

The number of minor brain traumas, as well as concussions has risen over the years and will continue to rise in the NHL community. An Article from BMJ Sports Medicine explains how even though the NHL has added more penalties such as checking from behind, and head checking it has still not done enough to bring down the number of injuries down significantly enough. This poses the question of whether the NHL is really doing enough regulation to protect the players from injury causing them to be taken out of the game for a short period, or the rest of their career. An example of a regulation provided by the NHL is as follows. A Matching penalty shall be placed on any player or team official who deliberately attempts to or deliberately injures an opponent, official, team official or spectator in any manner. While placing a penalty on a player may seem effective, in the long run it does not do much. Once they get out of the penalty box, they are able to commit another offense that could pose a risk of injury. What we should be doing, is any player that breaks a regulation rule that involves physical fighting or injury should be ejected from the game. This would get the point across that this is not acceptable and will cause you to lose a significant amount of playing time should you choose to cause physical harm to an individual.

Chances are when you go to a hockey game a fight will break out at some point. Hockey is known to have a stronger masculinity dominance surrounding it. This in a way causes more fights in order to prove who is more masculine. The NHL does allow fighting on the ice, while the Olympics, as well as international teams do not allow fighting on the ice. While at the game you might find it exciting, it does not happen at every game. A “fight” during a hockey game consists of two or more players removing their gloves and helmets and then they proceed to throw punches at each other. This would then result in all of the players involved receiving a penalty. However this does not send the message that it is unacceptable to partake in an activity such as fighting. With Olympics being such a prestigious sporting event, they do not allow fighting.  The International Ice Hockey Federation states that if you participate in fighting you will be ejected from the game as they do not find it acceptable, or regulate it. This poses the question of what does the Olympics see wrong with fighting on the ice that the NHL does not?

The bottom line is that by the NHL not taking more precautionary measures, and regulating fights on the ice it is causing more injuries than any other sport. If we added more protective gear, and followed the same rules as the Olympics and International teams we would have a safer game. Taking away fights on the ice, and adding more protective gear takes nothing away from the enjoyability of the game. Instead it creates a safer game for the players. Safer gear could include a full face covering helmet, and or neck guards to prevent an interaction between the blade of ones skate and a players neck. While concussions can occur without fighting on the ice, they can still occur when a collision happens in the ice between two players. In order to make the game overall safer more regulations needs to take place. We should be taking a page out of the Olympics rule book, and follow what they are implementing.

Hockey has become a widely loved sport across the world. It has also become one of the most dangerous sports due to the high velocity of the game. More players get seriously injured in National League Hockey because of the lack of regulation and protective gear, and in any other National League sport. Rules and regulations are put in place to make the game safe, so it can be enjoyed by the fans. One argument against this statement is that there is no need for more regulation, it would make the sport boring. Today other National League sports are being deemed boring as it has all changed so much. NFL games used to be exciting and fun to watch. Today’s games are not as anticipated as they once used to be. People are now gearing more towards MMA fights. Protective gear in an MMA fight could be considered the first punch, when someone takes down their opponent as soon as the match starts to “protect themselves”

While fights do happen and hockey games, and fans may enjoy them, they do not last very long, they cause injuries, they decrease playing time on the ice, which could all result in a team losing a game. It is common that during a hockey game, a fight will break out among two or more players. While this does get the fans attention, most of the times it is a short lived fight that doesn’t last very long. If we got rid of fights on the ice it would limit the amount of injuries that occur during a game, especially career altering injuries. It would also play a part in the amount of playing time star players receive on the ice. An article from the Oxford handbook of sports and economics mentions that when players get into a fight on the ice, they will get anywhere from a 5-10 minute penalty depending on the severity of the fight. This means that each team loses one or more players for the duration of the penalty causing them to potentially lose the game because their star player is in the penalty box. This then enrages the fans because they came to see their team win but due to a fight on the ice the team has lost.

While fighting is entertaining in both hockey and MMA, on the ice it can result in serious injuries, which could cause season or career ending injuries, which would result in fans being upset by their favorite players not playing. MMA professionals are trained on how to protect themselves and how to throw a clean punch. It is also the nature of the sport to fight. Hockey on the other hand is the opposite. The nature of the sport is to shoot the puck in your opponents neck as many times as possible per game. Fighting on the ice is not something hockey players train for which could add to the reasoning in which people get hurt, because they are not fighting properly. It has been proven that certain fights on the ice have caused career ending injuries. Fans may think that the fights on the ice are fun and entertaining, until their favorite player has a career ending injury. Fans would much rather keep seeing their favorite continue playing on the ice than see them in a 10 second fight. An excerpt from the book “Our Real Life Was On The Ice” encounters a Canadian hockey fan who speaks about his love for the game, and how much he enjoys seeing his favorite players versus their rivals. The fights in a hockey game only last for a few seconds, whereas seeing one of your favorite players on the ice while you grow up lasts a lifetime.

Injuries due to a lack of helmet regulations is also a big problem in the NHL. Some people don’t think it is that big of a deal that the face shields don’t fully cover a players face or neck. Chicago Blackhawks player Connor Bedard suffered a serious facial injury during a game this season versus the New Jersey Devils. This required him to get emergency surgery to repair his broken jaw which caused him to be out of multiple games. While he was not injured in a fight, rather an on ice collision, this could have been avoided with a more protective helmet. Had he been wearing a fully covering helmet which covered all of his facial extremities including his neck the injury would have been less serious and possibly avoided. When he returned back to the game, he was wearing a helmet some people may refer to as a “cage” or “fishbowl”. This is when a helmet fully covers the face to prevent facial injuries during playing time. An article from the “Open Access Journal of Sports Medicine” mentions how the orbital and facial injuries are at the most risk when it comes to NHL games due to the helmet regulations. The behavior of the players during the game needs to change. The NHL also needs to be held accountable for significant injuries that occur during games due to their lack of regulation. With the NHL being such a large franchise, one would think that they would advocate more for the safety of their player.

At the end of the day the real fans who want to see their favorite players continue playing would be in favor of more safety measures taken, as well as more regulation to take place during the games. As Hockey is one of the most dangerous sports, it makes sense to have it be the most regulated National League sport. MMA fighting is a fighting dominated sport, you go into an MMA match knowing you are going to be injured to an extent when you step out of the ring. National League hockey is supposed to provide a safe environment for the players and the fans. The players want to play a sport they are passionate about, not walk off the ice with a career ending injury, and the fans want to watch their favorite players win the Stanley cup at the end of a season, not lose due to a lack of regulation.

References

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