Philadelphia Flyers captain Chris Pronger after being struck in the face with a stick during a NHL hockey game with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Monday, Oct. 24, 2011, in Philadelphia.Tom Mihalek/The Associated Press
The seeming epidemic of concussions in the National Hockey League shows that a tipping point has been reached: At last, players and management are willing to diagnose what they shied away from.
Until now, far too many players have borne their concussions in silence. Except in the worst cases, they played on. Their coaches and general managers closed their eyes and hoped for the best. Their concussions accumulated. There were no "epidemics." And the game didn't have to change.
Now there should be real pressure to find solutions, fast, to a problem that has bedevilled the game for decades. It is no longer hidden.
Not when Chris Pronger, the tough and mean Philadelphia Flyer defenceman, has been declared out for the season with severe concussion symptoms. A bodycheck absorbed by the 37-year-old Mr. Pronger looked relatively minor; almost certainly, a lifetime of undiagnosed concussions caught up to him. That is the price of denial. It is the same price Sidney Crosby paid when he ignored his "sore neck" (a symptom of a brain being whiplashed), returned briefly and then missed nearly a full year. Two little bumps, and he is now out again.
The denial still lingers (some teams talk about "concussion-like symptoms"), but it is shrinking. Milan Michalek, the league's leading goal scorer, is out – he ran into a teammate. Claude Giroux, the points leader, is out; a teammate kneed him in the head. Jeff Skinner, last year's top rookie, is out.
There may not be any more head injuries than before. The players are less willing to deny their symptoms, and rush blindly back; the teams are more intent on protecting their investment in their players. All eyes are open.
Where do the solutions lie? One possibility is in better technology – for helmets, which have changed little in years; for rink glass, which has changed, but is still implicated in too many head injuries (including Mr. Crosby's and Mr. Pronger's); and for softer shoulder and elbow pads.
Another is in sterner punishment for dirty hits. This year, the league finally has a penalty for deliberate targeting of an opponent's head – but it's a two-minute "minor" penalty. And the league's allegedly tough disciplinarian, Brendan Shanahan, suspends players for a few games here or there. What about 10 games for a first headshot offence, 40 for a second, a season for a third?
Even the hardest of the NHL's hard men, men like Chris Pronger, have soft, mushy brains prone to injury. After Sidney Crosby, after Chris Pronger, denial is so much tougher. As a first step, the league should take seriously punitive measures to protect those vulnerable brains.