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During my playing days and the early part of my refereeing career, the vast majority of players came up to the professional ranks already knowing how to protect themselves. They knew not to leave themselves in a vulnerable position, such as by turning to face the boards. They knew how to get along the wall to absorb a hit they couldn't avoid.
Sad to say, but these once very basic skills are insufficiently learned. Mind you, I'm not making excuses for dirty hits (boarding, charging, checking to the head, etc. ) or blaming the victim if there's an injury inflicted on these plays.
However, I am talking about players not putting themselves in situations where they are completely reliant on an opponent to avoid such hits. More specifically, though, I'm talking about situations where even 100 percent clean. routine hits become dangerous.
Yesterday morning, a Philadelphia Flyers fan sent me a video link to a hit in Tuesday's game in which Flyers rookie forward Nolan Patrick's head smacked the glass and the player had to be helped off the ice after a hit in the defensive corner. The questions:
1) "In a ref's opinion, do you think there should be a penalty and/or supplementary discipline for the player (Anaheim's Chris Wagner) who delivered the hit?"
2) "In a retired enforcer's opinion, did the Flyers drop the ball by not coming to their highly touted rookie's defense and going after (Wagner)?"
First, let's look at the video of the sequence and then I will answer....
What I see on this play is a correct non-call. There was no penalty here, nor is this even close to something that merits supplementary discipline. It is a clean shoulder-to-shoulder check -- and not even one delivered at high speed -- in which the recipient put himself in a vulnerable position by how he stationed himself. Consequently, his head slammed into the glass atop the end boards.
As such, my answer to the second question from a former player's perspective is also a no. Wagner took no liberties on Patrick. It was a routine hockey play with an unwanted result. (Addendum: Thankfully it seems as though Patrick is OK and will not miss any games). If I were a veteran on the rookie's team, I'd have told the kid that he needs to take a hit properly or he's eventually going to get hurt.
I'm not picking on Nolan Patrick here. It's just a recent example of something I see at all levels of the game nowadays. I cringe every time because it's like a ticking timebomb. Absorbing a hit properly is simply a matter of self-preservation as long as body checks are part of our game.
We've also lost the art of players knowing how to practice self-defense. Players used to be allowed -- and taught -- to use their stick as a shield for self-defense. They turned the stick horizontally and raised in high enough to wedge off a would-be checker or convince him to veer off the hit rather than running himself directly into a stick.
Too often in today's game, there's a triangular issue at work that reflects a much bigger set of problems: We have serial reckless hitters who are tacitly coached to indiscriminately "finish your check" and we have players who don't know to properly defend themselves or deter such hits. Lastly, we have a problem with officials being taught not to feel the game but rather to fear it, and consequently tending to be reactive (either over-reactive to clean physical play or under-reactive to the duty of keeping the game safe).
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Paul Stewart holds the distinction of being the first U.S.-born citizen to make it to the NHL as both a player and referee. On March 15, 2003, he became the first American-born referee to officiate in 1,000 NHL games.