Turning Out The Lights: Concussions, Spectacle and the NHL

By David Gowdey

In the last complete season, 2011-12, NHL players lost 1,697 games due to concussion injuries. Between October and December 2011 more than 35 players were knocked out of action by head injuries, many for extended periods. Besides Sidney Crosby, the top player in the world, they included Claude Giroux, who had been leading the league in points at the time of his injury, Milan Michalek, who had been leading in goals, two top rookies, Sean Couturier and Brayden Schenn, Jeff Skinner, the previous season's top rookie, superstar defensemen Shea Weber and Chris Pronger, and goalies Ryan Miller and Chris Mason. By the end of that year at least 88 players had suffered concussions. Soon after the 2013 season began the parade continued. Ten players were concussed in 12 days in February 2013, including Evgeni Malkin, Rick Nash and star rookies Brendan Gallagher and Vladimir Tarasenko.

In 1998, after Steve Bocking suffered his second concussion in two years playing hockey, his father Dr. Ken Bocking began a campaign to bring the concussions crisis to light. In 2011 he succeeded in his goal when Hockey Canada banned head shots across the country. But the NHL refuses to take effective action against dangerous hits. Despite small steps forward in recent years its rulebook remains incoherent, enforcement on the ice is erratic and suspensions by the league are minimal, even for repeat offenders.

Today doctors across the United States and Canada are calling for a change in the culture of hockey. TURNING OUT THE LIGHTS tells Dr. Bocking's story, discusses the concussions issue from all sides and offers safety guidelines for players, parents and coaches. It also takes a close look at recent developments. The NHL claims to be defending the fabric of the game, while at the same time ignoring some of hockey's most established traditions. Although the league has always been dangerous the author shows convincingly that the game took a radical new direction in the 1990's. Many smaller and lighter players have been driven out, and it's debatable whether stars like Wayne Gretzky or Doug Gilmour could have excelled under today's rules. Thoroughly researched and packed with surprising information, the book provides plenty of fuel for discussion and encourages different points of view to find common ground.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Gowdey
• Release date: Oct 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9780991022106

David Gowdey

David Gowdey was born in London, Ontario, Canada in 1951. Twenty miles to the southwest the AHL's Cleveland Barons held preseason training camp in the nineteen-fifties and early sixties. There he saw his first hockey, the best of the Original Six against the hungry Barons, in an arena where the most distant seats were five rows up from the ice.He lived in Canada and England before moving to California in 1981. He and his wife make their home north of San Francisco. His son is a busy documentary film editor; his daughter is a songwriter and musician. He still takes the occasional shift.This is his tenth published book. His next, FADE IN: The Stories Behind The Screen, a collection of writing on classic movies, will be published November 2013.

Book preview

Introduction

Growing up what I remember best about Ken Bocking’s house was the tree in the middle of the rink. About forty feet from the goal at the south end a full-size weeping willow stood guard like Scott Stevens, dominating all it surveyed. Like Stevens it caught your eye right away, if you were lucky. I wasn’t always lucky.

Although the boughs were cut high and branches never interfered with play unless somebody lofted the puck, there always came a point in the course of the afternoon when the game itself took over and set the pace of your skating. You would take a pass and take off for the goal, pulling away from any checkers, and if you lost the puck you’d turn back at top speed to regain it. That’s when the tree would most suddenly appear.

I never skated fast enough to suffer anything worse than being knocked over when the tree struck. I managed to escape unscathed, but for better players when that point of the day arrived it was generally best to be on the tree’s team, attacking the other goal.

Ken went on to study medicine and after graduation became a surgeon. He never lost his love for hockey, and introduced his two sons to the game before they were 5.

An early presence beside Steve Bocking was future NHL star Joe Thornton. Joe was one of Steve’s good friends and his teammate from the time they were 7 years old. During the long winters in Southern Ontario their lives revolved around hockey. Ken helped coach the two in minor hockey, and served as team doctor and trainer when they started as a travelling team. In bantam hockey Joe began to dominate as a center and moved up a level, while Steven stayed back, playing both wing and defense.

In 1996 at age 17 while playing for the Junior B St. Thomas Stars Steve skated back for the puck after an opponent had dumped it in. As soon as Steve touched it his head was slammed from behind. He hit the glass and bounced off, and crumpled as his skates gave way.

Play was called; Steve was dazed and his eyes wouldn’t focus. The referee leaned in to check on his condition, and after a few minutes he was helped off the ice. There was no penalty called on the play.

Doctors at the hospital agreed that Steve had suffered a concussion, and under the guidelines of the time advised he stay off the ice until the headaches stopped.

The second concussion eighteen months later was worse. Although the hit wasn’t nearly as hard the consequences were much more severe. Steve’s head ached constantly. Bright lights bothered him. He was dizzy walking and couldn’t concentrate while reading a book. Working on his specialty, mathematics, became very difficult.

Ken grew more alarmed as the weeks passed without improvement, and was concerned by the nonchalance of league officials. Every season he spent as team doctor he would see a serious concussion at least several times a month, yet they were never considered anything more than an unlucky play, a part of the game.

As a doctor Ken knew that this wasn’t good enough. He began his long campaign to raise awareness about the issue by writing a long letter to Brent Ladds, the chairman of the Ontario Hockey Association. Ladds met with Ken and followed up with other medical experts. In 1999-00 the OHA set up a three-man committee to study the problem of concussions in depth. Ken served on it and stressed the importance of the issue. The committee’s recommendations resulted in the OHA banning hits to the head soon afterward. Ladds continued on to the CHA annual meetings, and placed the committee’s recommendations on the table at the federal level.

In 2002 the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association took up the fight, and in 2011 Hockey Canada finally addressed the concussion question in a meaningful way. Head shots were outlawed in every minor and women’s hockey league in Canada, with zero tolerance and dramatic penalties for offenders. Equipment was scaled back to more traditional, pliable materials that don’t function as a weapon.

In 2011 Ken won the Dr. Tom Pashby Sports Safety Award for his contributions towards reducing catastrophic injuries in sports. Today his name is on the Pashby Trophy in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Safety expert Dr. Pat Bishop, who served on that first OHA committee, recently applauded Ken for his commitment: At that time there were no rules against hits to the head. Dr. Bocking wanted to stop the concussion parade. He is clearly the guy who brought the concussion problem to hockey.

***

Today the weeping willow is still there, but Scott Stevens is out of hockey. The bruising defenseman whose open ice hits set the gold standard for Don Cherry’s Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em videos is himself a victim of too many concussions. Elite players like Eric Lindros, Pat Kariya, Pat Lafontaine, Sergei Fedorov and Mike Richter have seen concussions cut their careers short. Sidney Crosby’s career still hangs in the balance, and Victor Hedman, the Tampa defenseman whose hit on Crosby put him out of action for the rest of the 2010-11 season, was himself forced out of action the following December with, yes, a concussion.

There is a crisis in North American hockey today. Before the 2011-12 NHL season the newly-appointed vice-president of the Department of Player Safety Brendan Shanahan took a courageous proactive stand against hits to the head, handing out long suspensions to Jody Shelley, Clarke MacArthur and James Wisniewski. The season began with many NHLers playing more tentatively, pulling up before following through on an easy hit.

But the concussions did not stop. Between October and December 2011 more than 35 NHL players had been knocked out of action, many for extended periods. Most of them were not marginal enforcers, or even particularly physical players: they included Milan Michalek, who had been leading the league in goals at the time of his injury, Claude Giroux, who had been leading in points, Jeff Skinner, the previous season’s top rookie, two top current rookies, Sean Couturier and Brayden Schenn, superstar defensemen Shea Weber and Chris Pronger and goalies Ryan Miller and Chris Mason.

The parade continued early in 2013. Ten players were concussed in 12 days in February, including Evgeni Malkin, Rick Nash and top rookies Brendan Gallagher and Vladimir Tarasenko.

Shanahan made a difference- without him the situation would almost certainly be worse. But the problem is not a simple one. Giroux, Michalek and Andy McDonald were injured in collisions with players on their own teams; Marc Staal of the Rangers was knocked out of action for over three months by a hit from his own brother; Mason, Pronger and Couturier were struck in the head with the puck. Various factors, including the ever-increasing size and speed of players, rule changes designed to open the game, armor-like equipment and huge rewards for winning have blended into a toxic stew.

Above all the coaching strategy based on the re-definition of finishing the check, a strategy that has evolved over the last twenty years, has done great damage. Players who are bigger, faster and out of control are running into opponents at every opportunity, often without paying any consequence. This is not in the tradition of hockey. It is a recent development, and more than anything else is behind the current crisis.

Both Ken and I are passionate hockey fans who want to see the NHL find a way out of the current dilemma. This book contributes to the discussion, and hopefully to the solution.

Prologue

THE MOMENT WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGED

The Winter Classic, played outdoors in early January, is the most-watched spectacle of the NHL’s regular season. In 2011 the game featured the league’s two biggest attractions, opposing captains Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals and Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

In 2009 Crosby had led Pittsburgh to a seventh game win over the Capitals in the second round, then on to the Stanley Cup. He followed up by scoring the winning goal in overtime in the final game of the 2010 Winter Olympics to give Canada the gold medal. That season he led the NHL with 51 goals, one more than Ovechkin, although Ovechkin played 9 fewer games. The following season Ovechkin led Washington to a franchise record 54 wins in the regular season, topping the overall standings by 18 points, but both teams were ousted from the playoffs by Montreal, led by spectacular goalkeeping by Jaroslav Halak.

Six months later, Ovechkin’s production was down, Washington was struggling, and they looked forward to the meeting with Crosby as a chance to re-start the season. Pittsburgh had languished around .500 until mid-November, when they set off on a 12-game winning streak, unbeaten for a month. For part of that time cameras had been following players from both teams behind the scenes for an HBO reality series called 24/7, and by New Years’ Day fans felt closer to the players than ever.

The temperature early in the day was a balmy 52 degrees, and a decision was made to move the start from 1:00 PM to 8:00 PM, bringing it to a prime time TV audience. The game won its time slot in the favored 18-49 demographic with almost 4.6 million viewers in the U.S., the most for hockey in many years.

Walking alongside the Capitals down the long tunnel on the way into the vast football stadium, torches blazing along the path leading to the ice, with over 68,000 fans packed into the stands, Crosby felt as eager as he ever had for a regular season game. The ice wasn’t fast, but the ice crew had done a good job under the conditions and the game was full of incident. One incident may have changed the course of NHL hockey.

Playing hockey outdoors is one of the great joys of life, but at the NHL level it has some unexpected consequences. In an enclosed arena the crowd is a wave of sound, but after the game begins the crowd noise fades into the background and players can focus on the sounds of the play on the ice. A quick call for the puck, a goalie’s stick banging the ice, the sound of a checker coming up behind you, are all clearly distinguishable, and players react immediately.

Outdoors the acoustics are different. There’s no metal roof structure to bounce the sounds of the game back to you, and to some extent the game seems to recede. Under a dark sky, before a crowd of over 68,000, Sidney Crosby never heard David Steckel approaching.

In the last minute of the second period, near the top of the circle in the Capitals’ zone, Crosby had tried to get his skate on a Washington pass but the puck skipped by him. He turned his head and looked over his shoulder to follow it, wondering if there was time enough for a play at the Penguins’ end. Washington’s Steckel, breaking by Crosby on his own way out of the zone, clipped him solidly on the chin with a shoulder. Crosby crumpled to the ice and rolled over, obviously in distress. Steckel claimed afterward that the contact was unintentional, although this has been widely disputed. It’s clear that although Crosby did move into Steckel’s path, in the seconds beforehand Steckel continued on a straight line and made no effort to avoid the hit.

Crosby returned in the third period and played most of his regular shifts, tried early on to split the defense, then missed the net on a shot a few minutes later. Eric Fehr’s second goal of the game on a breakaway sealed the win for Washington.

Four days later Victor Hedman of Florida rode Crosby against the glass after Crosby had passed off and braced himself on the boards. The hit was unnecessary, but seemed innocuous enough. Crosby’s head bounced and he didn’t return for 11 months. For the first ten months after the hit he was still unsteady, too dizzy and nauseated to drive or even watch television.

Crosby’s first days out of action turned into weeks, and soon the NHL came under serious pressure to address the problem. Consensus seemed close when G.M.s met in March, and a total ban on head shots was reported to be on the table. But in the end the league blinked, and the minor adjustment to Rule 48 adopted over the summer was a confusing compromise.

The rule came to be interpreted in many different ways by different referees, but by the end of the 2011-12 season a rough consensus began to emerge. The Stanley Cup winning game turned on a major penalty resulting from the rule, when New Jersey’s Steve Bernier nailed Kings’ Rod Scuderi with a high hit behind the net. Bernier drew a major penalty and a game misconduct, L.A. scored three times during the ensuing power play to break the game open and eventually won 6-1. It was a good call by Dan O’Rourke and a just result.

Over the course of the 2011-12 season 1697 games were lost to concussions. Without Rule 48 the situation in the NHL could have been worse, but this only emphasizes the depth of the problem.

A 2013 study by Dr. Michael Cusimano comparing seasons before and after Rule 48 showed no change in the rate of concussions. The rate stayed steady at around 5.2 concussions for every 100 NHL games. When concussion-like injuries were included, the rate increased to 8.8. Over 64 percent of the concussions resulted from bodychecks, and only 28 percent were illegal. Defensemen were at greater risk than forwards or goalies.

Sub-concussive hits, below the level of a concussion, have a cumulative effect, and the study also showed that players with more experience, although not necessarily older players, were at greater risk than less experienced players. Playing a few seasons in the NHL leads to greater jeopardy, not only for Sidney Crosby, but for every NHL player.

In the 1970’s the Philadelphia Flyers challenged the game by pushing roughhouse tactics, in effect daring referees to call continuous penalties and bring the game to a halt. Referees redefined what they were willing to call simply for the sake of getting through the night.

But those Flyers didn’t hit in the current style. They were a disciplined team, always in position, always coming at you to win the puck, but they would turn away once it was passed off. They held and tugged in front of the net, they weren’t above slashing and slicing with the stick, and if opponents responded in kind the gloves were dropped. But they didn’t hit relentlessly, and they didn’t hit to knock you out, at least not until the gloves hit the ice.

There was an average of 0.48 fights per game in the 2013 season, about the same rate as 1974-75, the peak of the Broad Street Bullies era. The rate is actually half of what it was in the 1980’s, when it approached one per game. But the rate of hitting, as reported by Pierre Lebrun from figures provided by the NHL, is up 40% since the 2004 lockout.

Many NHL teams play styles that would be acceptable in any era- Chicago, Montreal, St. Louis, Detroit, Rangers, Los Angeles. They don’t continually push the envelope of what is allowed. There are other teams, and especially certain players, who continually chafe against the rulebook, and who often cross the line. Few concussions result on plays where the player checked is able to brace for a hit- it’s the late hit, the hit on a vulnerable player, that causes most of the damage.

Hits like this are deliberate attempts to injure, attempts to win the game not by showing more skill or working harder but by damaging the other team. Anyone watching sees that, and many fans, and would-be fans, are turned off by it. For the last twenty years interference, charging and late hits have somehow taken on the mantle of old time Eddie Shore hockey. In fact, the style is recent, and it’s a radical departure.

Chapter 1

OLD TIME EDDIE SHORE HOCKEY

How violent was old time hockey?; momentum by the numbers

Physical, dangerous play has always been part of hockey. Fighting was in the NHL’s DNA from the beginning. Key builders Tex Rickard, the founder of the Rangers, and James Norris Sr. of the Red Wings and Black Hawks, were two of the biggest boxing promoters in the U.S.. Wild stick work was common in the NHL’s first decades. It was usually every man for himself, and players themselves sorted out opponents who went over the line. Stars like Nels Stewart, Sprague Cleghorn and Eddie Shore were regular combatants. Fights sparked rivalries and legends grew. But glorifying players who could do nothing but fight was never part of the NHL in the Shore era. Stewart, Cleghorn and Shore had their fair share of skirmishes, but they were also among the best players in the league.

The phrase old time Eddie Shore hockey comes of course from Slapshot, the classic Paul Newman movie about life in the minor leagues. The movie was written by Nancy Dowd, based on her brother Ned’s experiences in the EPHL- Ned played Ogie Oglethorpe in the movie. She first envisioned the film as a documentary, but director George Roy Hill convinced her to write a comedy. While it’s over the top, what makes it so funny is how accurate it is, as anyone who played minor league hockey, especially in the EPHL, will attest.

But hockey fans who see the Hanson brothers as the pure embodiment of old time hockey are in for a surprise if they actually watch the movie.

The Charlestown Chiefs arena is in the process of being sold and the team is about to go defunct, but Paul Newman’s character Reggie Dunlop has kept the players going by letting on that they’re merely relocating to Florida. When he finally admits the truth before the championship game, it’s a shock to all:

-I keep tellin’ you guys, I just lied to you. We ain’t hockey players. We been clowns, we been goons, we been freaks in a f*****’ sideshow. We’re a bunch of criminals- we should be in jail. That’s all there is to it. I’m ashamed, really ashamed of myself. See, Ned was right, violence is killin’ this sport- it’s draggin’ it through the mud.... Well, I’m not playing my last game that way.

-Last game?

-Yeah, it’s my last game, and I want to play it straight. No more nail ‘em, no more f*** with ‘em, I want to win it clean! Old time hockey, like when I got started. Toe Blake, Dit Clapper, Eddie Shore- those guys were the greats... I don’t know what to say. It’s up to you.

-Reg is our coach.

-Yeah sure, old time hockey!

-Like Eddie Shore!

But the opposing team has brought in every goon they can find, and the reformed Chiefs are thrashed bloody until the end of the first period, at which point Strother Martin from the front office arrives in the dressing room for a classic speech where he announces that scouts are in the building. The next scene of course is back to bedlam on the ice as the Hanson brothers cut loose.

I stand second to no one in my appreciation of the Hansons, but what’s been forgotten is that Reg’s old time Eddie Shore hockey rallying cry is a plea to play the game the way it was meant to be played. Anyone calling Raffi Torres old time hockey doesn’t know what he’s talking about, whether we’re talking movies or hockey.

***

Fans have uploaded many excerpts from vintage games onto YouTube, and the comments beneath are revealing. Repeatedly people write about how huge the ice looks. Of course it’s exactly the same size as today, 200’ x 85’, and in Chicago and Boston, smaller. But it looks like it’s being played on a wide river. Players take up less room. They have time to carry the puck, make a play with it, and seldom force a panicky pass.

In the 1932-33 season, Eddie Shore’s heyday, the average NHLer stood 5’ 9 3/4 tall and weighed 169.7 pounds. Danny Briere at 5’ 10, 180 pounds would have been among the biggest 20% of