Another Black Eye

Here we go again. The game of hockey has just been dealt another black eye by one of its own.

Not three months after the vicious hit dealt by Michael Liambis of the Erie Otters on Kitchener Rangers defenseman Ben Fanelli we again find another teenaged hockey player recovering from serious injuries as a result of another vicious hit to the head.

I’m sure we all have seen the video and while most people maintain that there was nothing wrong with the hit, I still believe Liambis deserved everything he got. Limabis skated as hard as he could from the blueline and struck Fanelli in the head with his elbow. He did not let up one bit, and that to me makes the hit dirty. To me it does not matter that Fanelli’s helmet flew off, the hit was unnecessary and Liambis got what he deserved. He was an overager and a fourth line goon who crossed the line.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, he was suspended again by the International Hockey League, which he joined as a member of the Bloomington PrairieThunder, for another hit from behind just two months later. Amazingly, he still hasn’t heard his lesson.

So here we find ourselves again. This time the culprit is Rouyn-Noranda forward Patrice Cormier, the captain of Team Canada at the World Junior Championships. We’ve all seen the video, and it was not pretty. After a line change, Cormier took a b-line for Mikael Tam of the Quebec Remparts during overtime and struck him in the head with his elbow. It was eerily similar to Cormier’s elbow on Swedish forward Anton Rodin during an exhibition game between Canada and Sweden.

You can argue that Liambis’ hit was in the heat of competition and that things happen so fast that he had no time to react, but that certainly is not the case in either incidents involving Cormier. Both seemed premeditated and he showed little or no remorse in both cases.

This calls into question what we are teaching these kids when they are growing up. Too much is made of “the big hit” these days. The body check is intended to knock an opponent off the puck, not put them in hospital. With all the hooking and holding taken out of the game at every level, the game has become faster and more dangerous even without all the headhunters roving the ice, waiting for their next victim with their head down.

I don’t know what the answer is. Do we take out headshots? Okay, that’s good and dandy, but what happens when Zdeno Chara tries to take Martin St. Louis off the puck? Do we take out body checking altogether? Might as well throw a soccer ball on the ice.

I feel like the changes need to come from the grassroots level. We need to teach respect; we need to teach kids that hockey is a dangerous sport at the best of times, and that trying to hurt other players is not acceptable because of what has happened to Ben Fanelli and Mikael Tam. Further, we have to punish those that refuse to show their opponent any respect as CHL commissioner David Branch has done with Liambis and as I expect he will with Cormier.

It’s like my political science professor always said to us: “Why do people obey the law? Because they are afraid of the consequences.” If the consequences are severe enough, if they risk their playing careers for “the big hit”, perhaps then players will play hockey the way it was meant to.

-matt