On My Way to Fight Gary Bettman
Yes, that is the title of this as it is saved on my computer. I originally wrote this at the end of the NHL season in 2023, so I did go back and revise some things, as well as add in a whole paragraph. I never originally shared this because I felt as though nobody would care but now I would like to put it out there for everyone. References are included at the end if anyone wants to read the articles that I pulled my information from.
We’ve been warned about the dangers that come with playing sports ever since we were children. People have gotten injured and died from not having protections in place to keep them safe. As sports have evolved and gotten more popular, professionals are continuously working towards implementing safety precautions and standards to lower the risk of injury or death. Hockey is among the list of sports like this. But what happens when the commissioner of the NHL denies a connection between the sport and a very serious disease that can affect anyone from the ages of six to thirty-six, or maybe even older? Parents and players believe him instead of the facts, causing their risk to increase. Hockey is an inherently dangerous sport, but there are several things that can be done to lower the danger level.
The first thing one can look at to help lower the risk of injury is equipment. There are safety regulations that can be changed and standards that can be updated to help fix part of the problem. The National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE) and the Hockey Equipment Certification Council (HECC) work together on standards for helmets, as well as face and eye protection. But having standards on only those two categories isn’t enough. In 1998, during a Stanley Cup playoff game, Chris Pronger was hit in the chest by a puck while blocking a shot from Dmitri Mironov. After getting up and taking two strides, Pronger collapsed, his heart suffering from Commotio Cordis. Commotio Cordis is when an object hits your chest directly over your heart during a certain part of the heartbeat and causes sudden arrhythmia. Chris Pronger was the first athlete to survive this, but he’s one of very few. This risk can be reduced incredibly if equipment companies were forced to add protection over the heart in shoulder pads just like men’s lacrosse shoulder pads and lacrosse chest protectors for goalies.
There are other injuries that can occur in hockey too- just not as severe as sudden arrhythmia. Two good examples come from the 2022-23 NHL regular season. In October of that season, Jake Guentzel of the Pittsburgh Penguins, now a player for the Tampa Bay Lightning, took a shot to the ear, causing him to immediately start bleeding. Guentzel was forced to miss four games in a row due to the injury. Players are not required to have ear protection on their helmets, but companies going ahead and making them permanent anyways would help lower the chance of the same thing happening to another player. In December, Ryan O’Reilly of the Nashville Predators , then a player for the Buffalo Sabres, suffered from a broken foot after blocking a shot. There is currently minimal protection on the side of hockey skates, where your metatarsal, the most fragile bone in your foot, is located. By adding some sort of extra padding or more of a hard shell on the skates, the risk of a broken foot can be brought down as well.
Another injury that can occur may possibly be the most dangerous. Several parts of your skin may be exposed during play- from the wrists to the neck. A cut from a skate blade on the wrist may easily be stopped by an athletic trainer and the help of a tourniquet. However, a sliced neck is not as easy to treat and could ultimately lead to a player's death. This was the case for Adam Johnson on October 28, 2023. The former Pittsburgh Penguin suffered a skate blade cut during the second period of a game in the UK. A referee helped skate him towards the bench while the athletic trainers came out to attend to him. Unfortunately, he succumbed to his injury and passed away. Clint Malarchuk also suffered a slice from a skate blade in 1989, that cut through his jugular vein. He barely escaped death. He was interviewed in the wake of Johnson’s death and said that his experience left him with PTSD, which could easily happen to anyone who goes through that. Almost a year after Adam Johnson passed away, the AHL mandated that all persons on the ice must wear cut-resistant neck protection. At the moment, the NHL cannot mandate players to wear neck protection due to the collective bargaining agreement with the NHLPA. However, if they can regulate players to wear helmets during warmups, then why can they not come to another agreement to mandate cut-resistant neck protection when the current CBA expires in 2026? Not only would it be a measure to ensure players physical safety, but their mental safety as well.
The fourth and arguably the second most serious injury that can occur in hockey is a concussion. They occur from a fall or a hit to the head that causes the head to rapidly move back and forth. There are new stories all over the internet about players suffering from them. In 2021, during the Stanley Cup playoffs, John Tavares of the Toronto Maple Leafs got a knee to the face and suffered from a concussion. In 2011, Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins suffered from two concussions, as well as a soft tissue injury that caused swelling in his top two vertebrae. He suffered from a third one in 2016 as well. Equipment could be changed by adding more padding and protection on the inside of helmets similar to the way football helmets are padded. The NHL also does not force all players to wear helmets during warmups- only those who have been in the league post-2019. By changing this rule to include all players, the risk of a concussion during warmups can also be reduced. Rule 48.1 states that “a hit resulting in contact with an opponent’s head where the head was the main point of contact and such contact to the head was avoidable is not permitted.” I propose that this rule should be changed to include all contact with the head, even if it wasn’t avoidable just like in women’s lacrosse. That means the referees will have to stop making judgment calls on intent to injure and avoidability, and instead just call a penalty no matter what. Doing so will discourage just behavior and limit the risk of a concussion substantially.
Gary Bettman is the commissioner of the NHL, which means he is in charge of protecting the integrity of the game and preserving the public’s confidence in the league. However, he refuses to acknowledge the correlation between a deadly disease called CTE and the sport of hockey. CTE stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, and it is a neurodegenerative disease associated with repeated traumatic brain injuries. It can cause you to have memory problems, confusion, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Several professional hockey players have passed away from CTE, including, but not limited to Stan Mikita, Bob Probert, Jeff Parker, and Wade Belak. According to a study conducted by Boston University in March of 2022, a person’s chance of developing CTE increases by 23 percent each additional year that they play. This means that starting from the age of five, players are already at risk of developing and dying from the disease later in life. Another study conducted just four months later by leading experts in the field came to the same conclusion: there is a link between hockey and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. You may think there is nothing we can do as the public to force him to acknowledge the link, but there is. Emails, phone calls, peaceful protests- all viable options. Until Gary Bettman accepts the evidence, players and their families are going to believe him and more people will continue to die from CTE.
One final rule that could be changed for the betterment of the sport is Rule 8.1. This rule states that “when a player is injured so that he cannot continue play or go to his bench, the play shall not be stopped until the injured player’s team has secured control of the puck. If the player’s team is in control of the puck at the time of injury, play shall be stopped immediately unless his team is in a scoring position.” I believe that this rule should be changed to immediately stop play if a player is injured and unable to continue to play or go to his bench, regardless of whether his team has the puck or not, let alone in a scoring position. This change will help prevent further injury for the player, as well as the others on the ice, and allow the medical team to assess them immediately.
In conclusion, even though hockey is a dangerous sport, there are changes that could be made to help lower the danger level. These include equipment specification and standards being changed, rules being changed, and Gary Bettman finally admitting that there is a correlation between hockey and CTE. There are still more safety precautions that could be put in place and if they aren’t soon, then players are only going to continue to get not only seriously injured, but suffer even more mental health problems than they already do.
