Lindros advocates elimination of body contact

[Human]

this is one of the reasons the Pens players were high-fiving each others on the bench when Kasparaitis killed Lindros. absolutely pos hit here on an indefensible player. big bully crying about hits.

edit: I do agree with Dryden on the head hit = penalty. the problem is at the speed of the game, you can hardly see sometimes if it was a shoulder/chest/head hit. it will also increase embellishment. players will embellish high hits just like they embellish high-sticks. I still agree with a rule like this.

edit 2: I keep pressing reply instead of edit, since these forums changed...

 

[blood gin]

this is one of the reasons the Pens players were high-fiving each others on the bench when Kasparaitis killed Lindros. absolutely pos hit here on an indefensible player. big bully crying about hits.

And remember this was around the time seamless glass was being introduced everywhere. Almost no give at all. This was like an attempt to crush another humans skull. Dirty hit

 

[blood gin]

Does international hockey have less contact?

I'm all for international sized rinks and rules.
Just a more pure game imho.

It doesn't necessarily mean a better or more entertaining game though. I think international rink and rules lead to a more boring game. Not that's it's terrible but NHL style seems to have more excitement and scoring chances.

 

[StoneHands]

Can someone show me the quote where Lindros advocates eliminating body contact in the NHL? I don't see it and this entire artcle and thread feel like click bait that a lot of people fell for.

 

[ZeroPucksGiven]

What about body slams?

Barry Trotz said thats just a hockey play

 

[AgentBrodeur]

 

[streitz]

 

[HyPnOtiK]

And the last scenario is Scott Stevens ending his career because he couldn't keep his skates on the ice.

Fixed

 

[HyPnOtiK]

Terrible hit,such a *****e play

As dirty as Steven's hit

 

[snipes]

I'll never watch an NHL game again if that happened.

The league is already soft as ****.

 

[DannyGallivan]

Ken Dryden has earlier talked for a blanket elimination of head shots and introduction of automatic penalty for hit to the head, no excuses, no exceptions.

Eric Lindros took even more drastic view arguing that hockey may retain its nature even if all body contact is eliminated.

https://www.nationalpost.com/sports/hockey/nhl/eric-lindros-drastic-rule-change-nhl-concussions-body-contact/amp

Interesting note from Dryden in article:

They have that already. It's called Women's Hockey and nobody watches it except for the gold medal game at the Olympics.

 

[Sam Spade]

The NHL and NFL should soon stop trying to make their sports safe by continuing to reduce hard body on body contact/hitting. The lawsuits against the leagues are based on players believing the leagues had knowledge that hitting was causing CTE and kept it from the players and did nothing to protect them. Once those lawsuits are settled the leagues should be at square one, if you want to play the sport you assume the risks, it's out in the open now. Boxing still exists, MMA/UFC is huge and I can't even watch it it's so violent, watching both women and men knee each other in the face is barbaric but it's their choice to take part in it.

If the evidence of damage keeps growing then I'm sure we'll see a lot less kids involved in hockey and football. In the US it's incredible what I'm seeing, tons of high schools shutting down their football programs, not for insurance or moral reasons, but because there's so few kids signing up to play. I don't think safety/health concerns are the only factor, there's also changes to how teenagers are living their lives, they're on their phones and tablets all the time, video gaming, socializing.

This poster just said everything I was going to say better than I would have.

Once the lawsuit is settled that's it. When I take my kid to SkyZone I have to sign a waiver of liability before he jumps, when he plays hockey USA Hockey makes me sign the same thing, and gives me the option to purchase extra insurance just in case. EVERYONE now understands the risks involved.

As to the point of football programs becoming extinct the poster is correct as well. In my mid size town, the high school has around 800 students, they could not get enough kids to tryout, so after playing last season with 30 kids they have dropped the program.

 

[Drytoast]

ugh. The league is already soft. Too soft. Players get ample pay for any health risk long or short term.

The hitting stays.

 

[joestevens29]

At the end of the day yes body contact is resulting in concussions. I think the majority understand that whiplash is causing a lot of injuries.

However, this is a professional sport. If you don't want to take the risk, then don't play.

 

[BHD]

Of course he does.

 

[Kamiccolo]

They don’t make big bucks because of concussions. They make big bucks because people want to see the stars play. Thats why the goons make the *little* bucks.

My comment meant they make big bucks because there is the risk of those injuries. Even the Goons make more in a year than the average person does in their lifetime.

 

[Sensinitis]

Yeah...if the posters here say they’d lose interest in the sport because it’s not as physical...then you just don’t love it. Anyone can be physical, like, besides hitting the gym, there’s not much to work on. There’s nothing interesting there. It’s just violence and some fun. Any dumb MF can hit. The creative aspect of the game is what is actually interesting. The fact that it’s a team game, the skating, the stickhandling, the shooting, like that’s all stuff that takes brains and skill that truly WOWs you whenever you witness a clever play.

There’s all kinds of physical sports out there, from rugby to football to MMA to boxing. That’s not what’s unique about hockey.

If we can have a safer game while preserving body contact, great, if not, i don’t care, it’s still ice hockey, and that concept of viewing toughness as synonymous with violence...just more primitive american propaganda, nothing new under the sun.

 

[SenzZen]

Brett Lindros advocates the elimination of tree contact when snowmobiling drunk.

 

[RandV]

Guess the NFL, should revise it's rules too. Because the National Flag League.

I don't think that comparison really works... is there even much of an appetite for flag football in the US like there is beer league hockey, which is almost exclusively no hitting? While there are a lot of guys that play physical in the NHL you also have guys like Niklas Lindstrom who made their career off of smart positioning and stick work. I don't think you can make the same comparison in the NFL.

Personally though on the topic it's not something I'd proactively advocate but I don't think I'd actually care if they took hitting out of hockey. I'm biased though in that I started actually playing hockey in my late 20's and my love for playing the game, in a manner that does not have hitting, quickly exceeded my love for watching the NHL.

Getting into the topic of player safety though while this is always looking at players in the NHL and its fans critical of the concept will say 'this is what they signed up for', I'd think it's more important to look at the broader picture. In order for a league like the NHL to exist, it requires feeder leagues of 1,000,000+ kids and lower level players to feed into it. It's kind of a pyramid scheme, and in order to get to the top the rules starting at the bottom need to be largely the same. Kids start contact hockey at what, 14? So what are the health effects throughout the whole system? I'd imagine it's initially pretty safe but as those kids start getting bigger and faster and moving up into more competitive hockey it starts to take more of a toll.

I never went through that system so I really wouldn't know the details, rather I'm just saying if you're looking at these types of things you shouldn't only be examining it at the top of the pyramid.

 

[egelband]

My comment meant they make big bucks because there is the risk of those injuries. Even the Goons make more in a year than the average person does in their lifetime.

Sure. That’s true. But relatively the goons make less than the skill players. Which implies the fans are (assumed to be) more interested in the skill aspect. But indeed, the pay scale is high partially for the risk element. Though probably moreso due to the size of the pie.

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

If it does happen, the entire NHL folds because the majority of viewers will be lost. And I will cry because even if hockey doesn't have physical contact I still love the game.

 

[billingtons ghost]

Lol at lindros pretending he was a skilled waterbug.

The guy bullied his way into the league, out of Quebec, and his whole playing style was predicated on contact. He finally moved to a big enough pool where he isnt the biggest fish and he must keep his head out of his skates coming over the middle... But being an arrogant conceited jackass, he learns nothing and people fix it for him.

Yeah, Eric, try to ruin hockey now since it has always been about you.

He wouldn't have made the NHL if there was no contact. I can't think of another dirty player who so got what he deserved.

Anyone who says otherwise doesn't remember early 90s lindros before he was walking on eggshells. His effectiveness as a player was entirely based upon contact.

 

[billingtons ghost]

Fixed

Not so much . Watch the tape, then watch the dackell hit for reference.

 

[93LEAFS]

Lol at lindros pretending he was a skilled waterbug.

The guy bullied his way into the league, out of Quebec, and his whole playing style was predicated on contact. He finally moved to a big enough pool where he isnt the biggest fish and he must keep his head out of his skates coming over the middle... But being an arrogant conceited jackass, he learns nothing and people fix it for him.

Yeah, Eric, try to ruin hockey now since it has always been about you.

He wouldn't have made the NHL if there was no contact. I can't think of another dirty player who so got what he deserved.

Anyone who says otherwise doesn't remember early 90s lindros before he was walking on eggshells. His effectiveness as a player was entirely based upon contact.

This statement is preposterous. Did Lindros play a very physical game that crossed the line? Absolutely. But, he was also insanely skilled with elite vision and shot. He could have thrived in a non-physical league, similarly to how Chris Pronger also could have. Let's not act like we are talking about some enforcer on the 4th line. He easily could have played a game similar to someone like Mats Sundin or Anze Kopitar who while possessing size, were not terribly physical players. You don't win a Hart Trophy just based on physicality. He was truly an elite player

 

[billingtons ghost]

This statement is preposterous. Did Lindros play a very physical game that crossed the line? Absolutely. But, he was also insanely skilled with elite vision and shot. He could have thrived in a non-physical league, similarly to how Chris Pronger also could have. Let's not act like we are talking about some enforcer on the 4th line. He easily could have played a game similar to someone like Mats Sundin or Anze Kopitar who while possessing size, were not terribly physical players. You don't win a Hart Trophy just based on physicality. He was truly an elite player

If you take physicality away from eric lindros, is he a hall of famer in a league entirely populated with barzals and gaudreaus? I think not.