NHL Players are Beating Their Brains Out

The defining issue of the NHL's post-lockout era isn't goal scoring, hooking and holding, the size of goalie equipment, the salary cap, or how many Americans are watching hockey on television.

The defining issue makes the headlines every couple of weeks or so, when another player leaves the ice on a stretcher, his brains scrambled by a thunderous collision.

Jason Williams is the latest. Aaron Downey will probably retire. Tim Connolly hasn't played this season. Keith Primeau is long gone. But not all brain injuries make the highlight reels. Sometimes it's just a guy like Willie Mitchell waking up with a headache the day after a game.

Nobody has the slightest idea what to do about it. As the Edmonton Sun reported Thursday, the hit that flattened Williams was "clean, but it was still ugly."

Whether punishment for hits to the head is an enlightened idea or a mistake that would "take hitting out of the game," is hard to gauge. (Current opinion leans to the latter.) But it's worth noting that one of Canada's premiere junior leagues, the Ontario Hockey League, has introduced a penalty for any hit that involves contact with an opponent's head, whether intentional or not.

The majority of teenagers in the OHL will never play a pro game - and many who do won't make any serious money - so putting safety first is an easy decision at that level. But should the NHL answer to the same priority? Or is increased risk of concussion part of the bargain that comes with a lucrative career as an entertainer?

"You can play hockey without ever having a hit like the one Regehr threw (on Aaron Downey), but you will forfeit the big open-ice hits that make the game special," wrote Mark Spector in the National Post.

He might be right. But how special is Jason Williams feeling today?

Postscript: Scott Morrison at CBC.ca quotes from NHL VP Colin Campbell, who sums up the party line:

...we have to be careful because we’re not allowing low hits, if we eliminate all hits to the upper body, what’s left? Hits to the belly button? We can’t forget we are a physical game.”

That's the consensus around the NHL. But there are dissenting voices. One of the greatest players of all time says it's time to start penalizing all hits to the head.