Sidney Crosby, you had been doing so well at shaking your ‘whiner’ label that was well earned in you’re earlier playing days.
But after your rant late last week about headshots after you suffered a concussion, I’m left shaking my head.
The first hit, and likely the cause of his concussion, came in the NHL’s Winter Classic on New Year’s Day when Crosby skated into Washington Capital David Steckle’s shoulder. The second hit was taken along the end boards by Tampa Bay Lightning defenceman Victor Hedman a few nights later. Hedman received a minor boarding penalty on the play.
“I didn’t like them,” Crosby said. “You talk about headshots and dealing with them, and that’s been something that’s been a pretty big point of interest from everybody — GMs and players. When I look at those two hits . . . when we talk about blindside, that’s a big word. Unsuspecting player. There’s no puck there on both of them. Direct hit to the head on both of them. If you go through the criteria, I think they fit all those.”
However, neither play even remotely fits the description of the NHL’s blindside head hit rule which outlaws “a lateral, back-pressure or blind-side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or the principal point of contact.”
On the Steckel hit, that was all you Crosby. You lost your place on the ice and circled back into Steckle’s path. I would even argue it appears Steckel saw you at the very last second and tried to avoid you.
When Crosby was asked about it on Saturday this was his response:
“It’s really tough to decide if he meant to or didn’t mean to. I feel like he could have gotten out of the way and avoided me. Whether he tried to hurt me, only he knows. I guess we’ll never know that, but you still have to be responsible out there. I can carry my stick up around my head and say that I’m protecting myself, but I still have to be responsible for whatever I do with my stick if I end up high-sticking someone.”
By the same stroke Crosby, you have to be responsible for where you are on the ice as well, and keep your own head on a swivel. If I drive my car into an on coming train, I don’t blame the train for being there.
Stekel’s hit sounds like when you suffered your concussion, Crosby, saying the Jan. 5 game is when you started feeling off, even before the Hedman hit: “Throughout the game I just didn’t feel right.”
With the Hedman hit the only contact made with your head is when it smacked the glass. Your head was never targeted and the play was correctly called a boarding minor.
Welcome to the slippery slope.
First, the effectiveness of the rule and its enforcement has been debatable at best.
The hit levied by Calgary Flames fourth liner Tom Kostopoulos on Detroit Red Wing defenceman Brad Stuart that left Stuart with a broken jaw and Kostopoulos with a six-game suspension is just one of several incidents since the rule came into effect last March.
But the rule has also opened the door to a wider debate on any kind of hit that results in a concussion.
Now I don’t think the NHL has any intention of ever taking hitting out of the game. I will even give them credit for taking even further precautions when it comes to concussions in establishing base line testing and regulations about when a player can return to action.
But where I worry is the grass roots.
The CHL already has president David Branch who has a knee-jerk reaction to every questionable hit or play in the OHL, where he serves as commissioner. His precedents likely would have had the Red Deer Rebels Josh Cowen staring down a year’s ban for his sucker punch on Saskatoon Blades’ defenceman Stephan Elliott instead of the eight games he received.
But then every year there have are clamouring for hitting to be taken out of minor hockey altogether, usually after a high-profile incident. A move if made, I believe, would be catastrophic to the game and lead to further injuries when players all of a sudden have to learn to hit on the fly once they get to the junior, college and professional ranks.
Hockey is a contact game. It is a sport beloved for its physicality as for its speed and skill.
Those who play the game — especially those who are paid richly to do so — know injuries, even head injuries, are a risk. I’ve had six concussions, five of them from playing minor hockey and I have no regrets.
If you don’t like hitting, join a non-contact league or play pond hockey.
Now Croby, I don’t expect you to be happy about being hurt — a concussion can be especially upsetting.
But by calling for suspensions on these two incidents sends the wrong message about not only what should be cracked down on by the NHL but it also sends the wrong message about your sense of entitlement as a star.
You’re better than that.
jaldrich@www.reddeeradvocate.com
twitter.com@Ridingthepine03