ShareThisThe National Hockey League, which like professional football has been plagued by concussions, may be ready to take a stand this week on hits to the head.
Jim Rutherford, the Carolina Hurricanes general manager, says he hopes the meeting of general managers this week will produce a recommendation to the league on a way reduce head injuries. On Monday, the meeting's first day, the managers spent most of the morning viewing a video on head blows, followed by a presentation on concussions.
"We've talked about it enough, and we've got enough information," Rutherford said from the meeting in Boca Raton, Fla. "Hopefully we can come up with some kind of recommendation."
The quicker the better, said Dr. Kevin Guskiewicz, who heads the sport concussion program at the University of North Carolina and is research director for the Center for the Study of Retired Athletes.
"Hockey has so many unanticipated impacts, where you don't see the hit coming," he said. "The body is ill-prepared to steady itself and give good support to the head. ... In hockey, you often have two players moving in opposite directions at top speed -- the perfect storm."
Guskiewicz says a recent study of a youth hockey program associated with the Hurricanes showed the force of hits to the head appears similar to those in football.
Two years ago, the NHL reported that from 1997 to 2008, about 76 players per season suffered concussions.
Former Hurricanes defenseman David Tanabe, the team's first-round draft pick in 1999, was forced to retire at 28 because of concussions. Hurricanes prospect Matt Kennedy suffered his fifth career concussion this season on a brutal open-ice hit.
Kennedy, 21, was drafted by the Canes last year and plays in the Ontario Hockey League, which has a zero-tolerance policy on hits to the head. The player who blindsided Kennedy was suspended for 20 games.
"I don't think any hits to the head should be allowed," said Kennedy, who is playing again. "With the long-term consequences that concussions can have on someone's life, they need to try to eliminate those kinds of hits."
'How many is enough?'
Dr. Ann McKee strongly agrees. McKee, a neuropathologist at Boston University and the Bedford Veterans Administration Medical Center in Massachusetts, and other researchers have examined the brain of Reggie Fleming, an NHL defenseman and winger from 1959 to 1974. They found that Fleming, who died in July at 73, had brain damage from head trauma. Fleming's was the first identified NHL case.
Eleven former NFL players had been diagnosed with the disorder, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which McKee said causes dementia and has symptoms similar to Alzheimer's disease, although it produces more aggression.
"The symptoms don't become obvious until years after they retire," McKee said. "Not when they're playing the game, but 10 or 15 years later. It's an invisible injury."
Players young and old in the NHL are becoming more educated about concussions. "You get to the point that when you get another one, you ask yourself, 'How many is enough?'" said Hurricanes defenseman Brian Pothier, who has had four concussions. "Is it worth it? Is it worth your future with your kids, hopefully your grandkids?"
The NHL instituted a program for players returning from concussions during the 1997-98 season, requiring baseline and post-concussion neuropsychological testing.
All roster players undergo neuropsychological tests during training camp to set a baseline. If a player suffers a concussion during the season, he is given memory and motor-skill tests once symptom-free for a comparison to his baseline scores. Once a player is symptom-free, he must pass another physical exam and more neuropsychological tests before playing.
Former Hurricanes defenseman Niclas Wallin, now with the San Jose Sharks, said an NHL rule instituted in 2005 that discouraged clutching and grabbing has resulted in more high-speed collisions -- and concussions. A defenseman might have his face near the glass, digging for a puck, with an opposing forward crashing in unimpeded from behind.
"You've got a guy coming at you at 100 miles an hour," said Wallin, who has had several concussions. "And that rock-solid glass they have everywhere in the league -- hit it and it's like hitting a brick wall."
The chief protection is the helmet, and advanced technology has made for safer equipment. Defenseman Aaron Ward is one of those in the NHL now wearing the new M11 or Messier helmet -- promoted by Hall of Famer Mark Messier -- which has additional padding or "shock absorbers."
Ward said he has had two major concussions and believes the M11 prevented a third this season.
"I credit it with keeping me on the ice," he said. "And at 36, at this stage of my career, it's a matter of leaving the game with the sum of the parts."
Guskiewicz said hockey has been slow to change, saying the sport introduced "testicular cups" in 1873 for protection but didn't begin making helmets mandatory until 1979.
"I guess it took them more than a hundred years to realize the brain is just as important," he said.
Guskiewicz said helmets are not designed to fully prevent concussions. Guskiewicz said a three-year study involving the Junior Hurricanes, a youth hockey program sponsored by the Carolina Hurricanes, has been revealing. The junior players' helmets have accelerometers that gauge impacts.
"The average magnitude of the hits, 19 to 20 Gs, are nearly identical to (hits of) football players," he said.
Guskiewicz and McKee said they'd like to see the NHL adopt a zero-tolerance policy on hits to the head.
"Everyone needs to be behind changes that reduce trauma to the head, and referees need to hold the players to those rules," McKee said. "Professional athletes may recognize they are taking risks, but they may not fully know the risk of CTE."
Keith Primeau, a former Hurricanes forward forced to prematurely retire because of a string of concussions, has said he will donate his brain for research after his death.
"We need to do a lot more research on players and study the ages at which they suffered the traumas," McKee said. "We don't know all the risks."
Atlanta Thrashers defenseman Zach Bogosian is 19 and one of the emerging stars in the league. He'd like to think he will have a long career and have all his senses late in life.
"The speed of the game picks up every year. They're trying to make a better helmet, but if you get hit in the head it's pretty hard on the body,' Bogosian said. "It can do some damage."
(Contact Chip Alexander at chip.Alexander(at)newsobserver.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit The News and Observer of Raleigh, N.C.
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