NHLers: Use Your Heads

Has there ever been a time when there was as much discussion about concussions and head-protection in the NHL as there is these days? It’s not very surprising, given that the best hockey player in the world has been sidelined for almost ten months because of one. What is surprising, though, is that one seemingly obvious preventative measure is being seriously overlooked in professional hockey.

Plenty of possible solutions to the NHL’s concussion problem have been thrown around, and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman even introduced a five-point plan to reduce concussions last season. Part of that plan was to have Brendan Shanahan investigate ways to reduce the size of equipment without compromising its protectiveness; already, smaller and more streamlined shoulder pads may become mandatory next season. That sounds like a great idea. But wait a second: if we’re talking about protecting players’ heads, why isn’t there also discussion about helmets?

A hockey helmet is the one protective item that stands between a player’s head and the crushing impact of a bodycheck. The NHL estimates that players throw roughly 55,000 hits each season. That’s a lot of being tossed around; wouldn’t you think that a player would want the best protection possible for his brain, the thing that literally controls his body?

It seems not, given the number of players who wear the chin straps on their hockey helmets more loosely than the chin straps on sun hats, and given the lack of success of the M11 helmet, arguably the most protective hockey helmet out there.

The M11 helmet is the product of teamwork between Cascade Sports and NHL legend Mark Messier. It has been received warmly in lower levels of hockey; 22 out of 26 teams in the North American Hockey League, for example, are already outfitted in the M11. However, only about a dozen NHL players are wearing the helmet. It’s interesting to note the players who are wearing the M11, a list that includes Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Andy McDonald, and Willie Mitchell, all of whom have sustained severe concussions (from March 2009 until the start of this season, Bouchard missed almost twice as many NHL games as he played because of post-concussion syndrome). But why aren’t there more NHL players on the list?

Messier thinks that the main problem is the mindset of NHLers. He says that hockey is a “performance-driven sport” and what’s most important to that performance is skating faster and shooting harder – not wearing the best head protection. Of course, performance in terms of skating and shooting doesn’t count for anything if a player has a serious head injury. Just ask Marc Savard, who was among NHL scoring leaders in each of the four seasons following the lockout, during which time he racked up 359 points in 320 games, before he suffered a serious concussion in 2010. The 34-year-old’s career is very likely over.

The NHL needs to take steps to better protect its players’ heads, but the players need to take action themselves, too. Experts say that the role of a hockey helmet is to prevent catastrophic brain injuries – not concussions. Even so, what is there to lose by using the most protective helmet available?