Dealing with the concussion epidemic

The recent rash of dirty play and players injured with concussion made me think about how to reduce the frequency and severity of hits to the head.

It has become clear throughout the season that the NHL and NHL general managers have little interest in reducing the number of headshots, especially if this comes at the expense of rugged play. This has been particularly evident this playoff season when we here "it's playoff hockey" and "teams have an intense desire to win" cited as excuse for dirty, physical play that occurs both during the game and after the whistle.

If the NHL won't step up and provide leadership on the issue, then the NHLPA must step up and do a better job of protecting the majority of their members. Reading the comments of Jonathan Toews against the type of play that we have seen in the playoffs is a step in the right direction. Lets hope that other high profile players follow his lead.

As for the length of suspensions.

With the length of time concussed players spend on the sideline, I think that any suspensions need to be built around probability of time that the injured player may miss. The league must have data as to how many games on average a player concussed from a hit to the head misses.

The suspensions could start at that average plus a number of games depending on the severity of the act. Only when players start missing substantial time will they start to clean up their act. This could apply to any situation where there is "intent to injure" or any direct hit to the head. The amount of games added the average would increase based on repeat offenders.

The idea behind taking averages is that predicting the amount of time a concussed player will miss is so difficult and can vary by such wide amounts. However, the league needs to move away from situations like Keith, where Sedin has been out far longer then his aggressor, or Bergeron, where Jones received only two games and Bergeron was out for a year.