Prior to the start of the 2010 season, the NHL instituted a new rule regarding head shots: referees could assess a minor or major penalty for any blindside hit to the head, at their discretion.
The NHL hoped that this action would help finally decrease the number of shots to the head, and thus reduce the rapidly increasing number of concussions each year.
Statistically, though, the rule hasn’t made any difference. The NHL’s neuropsychologist Dr. Ruban Echemendia reported that as of Dec. 1, 2010, 33 concussions had been reported by teams, the same as the previous season.
These include two big names: Pittsburgh Penguins’ center Sidney Crosby and Boston Bruins’ center Marc Savard.
Sidney Crosby has been out since Jan. 5 with lingering post-concussion symptoms from two hits he took in the first week of January.
Marc Savard is struggling with the post-concussion effects of his fourth career concussion. He missed a big portion of the beginning of this season with the post-concussion syndrome.
Concussions are a very serious injury. The biggest concern with this injury is its after-effects, as evidenced by what Savard is suffering from. Players might not be out as long with a concussion as they would be with a broken bone or fracture, but it could have detrimental effects to their health because it is an injury to the brain.
From Mayo Clinic, its effects can include impaired memory, judgment, reflexes, speech, balance and coordination. These risks increase with each additional concussion sustained or the longer passing time that each concussion goes untreated.
The alarming part is that some concussions actually are never diagnosed, according to Mayo Clinic.
This is simply because people often don’t understand the warning signs of the concussion. They assume that a concussion comes from a hit to the head that causes a loss of consciousness. If they never suffered a loss of consciousness, the thought of having a concussion never crosses their mind. However, a concussion can occur from any harsh contact to the head.
In most every game, there is typically a lot of harsh contact to players’ heads. It can happen indirectly, just from the force of all the hits they take.
There could actually be an under-diagnosis of concussions in the NHL because of all these hits.
This is possibly the case with the supposed increase in concussions throughout the years. It might actually just be an increase in diagnoses of concussions. With the increase in medical technology and treatments, concussions will likely be detected better, causing little post-concussion effects, which is the good news.
It’s when the concussions start to pile up that is the bad news. Since hockey is such a physical game, it’s hard to formulate a plan to reduce incidental head contact. USA Hockey reports that the bigger, Olympic-sized rink can reduce the number of head injuries (like concussions) because it decreases player (and player head) contact with the boards.
The NHL should think about altering their rink size to correspond with international guidelines, while helping to prevent concussions at the same time. I think this is a good possibility that should be further examined by the league. Clearly something must be done about this rapidly increasing epidemic.
Another solution is for NHL golden boy Sidney Crosby to step up. He needs to take an authoritative role in the process to better protect players. He needs to use his clout and reputation within the league to affect change. Hockey is a physical sport.
Players are going to be taking a lot of hard hits every night. But that’s why it’s so important for there to be better safety measures to protect players. There needs to be earlier detection of these issues so that guys don’t continue to play and take hits that will compound the issue.
There should also be stricter rules regarding protocol following hits like the one Crosby took in the Winter Classic. In his press conference announcing that Crosby was out with a concussion, Penguins Head Coach Dan Bylsma told reporters that Crosby didn’t have any concussion syndromes following that hit, so they didn’t administer a baseline test. Crosby said that he wouldn’t have changed anything they did after that hit.
But he has also said that this is the first concussion of his career. How sure can he be that he wasn’t suffering from any syndromes? It should be mandatory for a concussion test to be administered following any hit to the head before a player can be eligible to play in another game.
That way, even if no symptoms manifest, there will be results of a medical examination to reflect that.
It’s sad but true to say that sometimes it takes something happening to a superstar for change to occur. Crosby said in his press conference following the injury, that he’s always been concerned about player safety, but it reaches a new level after getting firsthand experience. Now that Crosby has that, he needs to pull together other players who have experienced issues with concussions to discuss their experiences and demand the NHL to respond.
If Crosby does, he could help protect other players and prevent some concussions in the future.
April Weiner can be reached at april.weiner@spartans.ut.edu.