Chara, Pacioretty and More On Concussions

Yesterday we talked about fighting in hockey and concussions, and the need to eliminate that. Over the course of time there have been plenty of incidents (McSorley, Bertuzzi, Cooke) to discuss the need to eliminate the dirtiest of assaults from the game.

But last night in Montreal, we saw something different. Here's the YouTube footage. Be forewarned - the resulting impact of this play is horrendous. I've seen a lot of injuries in hockey over the years, but few as scary as this:



Pacioretty has a severe concussion and a fractured 4th cervical vertebrae. His hockey career may be over. It could have been worse.

Now Pacioretty and Chara have a confrontational history between one another. But was there intent to deliberately injure on Chara's behalf? Was this Bertuzzi all over again?

I have no attachment to either team or either player. Montreal fans sure think so, but I am going to give Chara the benefit of the doubt here, and say no. But you know what is scary about that? This serious injury was the result of a hockey play.

Chara was doing what a lot of defensemen do in such a situation. The puck got by Chara, and he knew he was going to lose a foot race to Pacioretty for the loose puck. Rather than give Montreal a fantastic scoring chance, Chara willing engaged his opponent in deliberate interference. He was willing to take a 2 minute penalty to prevent that. We see that situation played out every game, only on this night it met with disastrous results due to the glass.

We can take fighting out of the game. We can take deliberate assaults out of the game. But this is a physical contact game that is played at break-neck speeds. In a split second a collision - both intentional and accidental - can meet with disastrous results. Injuries and concussions are always going to be an inherent risk for National Hockey League players.

As CBC's Elliotte Friedman suggests, maybe hockey's biggest problem is the game itself?  Is the game too fast? Are the players too strong? Is the puck, essentially a 100mph frozen rubber bullet, travelling too fast? Is the game itself too dangerous? And is there anything that can be done about that?

One other quick thought - Surely there must be something that can be done about the turnbuckle, to make it less dangerous. I have no idea what. They probably had no idea how to make the nets safer back when Mark Howe impaled himself on the old, unforgiving nets. But they came up with a great solution that has resulted in very few injuries.

Update: The NHL deemed no further disciplinary action against Chara was needed. In other words, this was indeed a hockey play gone bad.