Mike Chambers: Rules against fighting in NCAA hockey don't deter cheap shots

Nice article by Mike Chambers of the Denver Post. I agree with a lot of what is said here. I have been watching college hockey for a very long time, and some of the dirtiest acts of violence, I have seen,  have happened on the ice during college hockey games.

I don’t know how many times I have seen a play where I have said, "I guarantee that guy doesn’t do that in a league where there’s fighting." Do we want to see bench clearing brawls in college hockey? Nope! Not saying that at all.  

Mike Chambers, Denver Post – If that player came from the NCAA ranks, he's more likely to be a loose cannon, because college hockey has such stiff penalties for fighting, which draws a game misconduct and ensuing one-game suspension. The NCAA also mandates full facial protection with a mask. While that might seemingly make the NCAA game safer, Mitchell said what it does is encourage more cheap shots, because players don't fear retaliation.

"If you take fighting out of the game, you're going to have guys taking liberties on your top players, and trust me, that thought is in the back of their minds: 'Hey, if I'm going to go out there and do something stupid, I might have to answer the bell. Someone is going to be come looking for me,' " Mitchell said. "So if (fighting is) out of the game, they have no worries."

The semi-pro Canadian Hockey League (major junior) mimics the NHL regarding its rules, including fighting, and offers a choice of cages or visors. NCAA hockey is often dubbed "gladiators on ice," with players less fearful of opponents because of the severe fighting penalties and added facial protection. Cross checks to the face mask are delivered instead of punches to the face.

Since fighting is not part of the college game, the majority of concussions hockey players suffer are a result of contact to the head from a shoulder or elbow or having a head smashed against the boards or glass. Moreover, NCAA players often get away with landing glove punches, but just because it's not a bare fist connecting with a open face doesn't mean it isn't damaging to the head.

I had an ex-college hockey player once tell me. “I can go up and smart off to the biggest guy on the ice, because I know I don’t have to fight.”

NHL Hockey: In the Wake of the NFL Settlement, is the NHL Next

English: A faceoff in the New York Islanders' first game of the 2009-10 NHL season, against the Pittsburgh Penguins. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I don’t know about this? I think that when an athlete plays a contact sport they assume a certain amount of risk and that participant should have to sign a waiver to play.

The Globe and Mail — Like the NFL, the NHL had had its feet held to the fire in recent years over the manner in which it deals with the incidence and severity of head injuries, both their prevention and monitoring. The Boston University Centre for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy has found evidence of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) in the brains of several former players. CTE is a degenerative disease caused by repeated brain injuries.

Several high-profile players, including Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, have missed large amounts of playing time with concussions and the league has rewritten rules and changed their interpretation in response.

Frank Brown, a spokesman for the NHL, said the league would not comment on the settlement.

The NFL, which generates an estimated $9-billion in annual revenue, will not be compelled to share internal documents that would indicate how much the league knew about concussions and when it knew. That is one reason why Paul Echlin, a Burlington, Ont.,-based sports-medicine specialist and an expert in the field of concussion research, said the NFL settlement serves the economic interests of each side without having much of an influence on the bigger picture.

In sports like racing, hockey, football, MMA, you’re playing in a sport that the next play could be your last. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that you could suffer a fatal injury and be killed. I do have a problem with football players turning around and suing the NFL, especially the ones that have made a lot of money to play a kids game. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel for their plight if they’re injured in a questionable play.