by Rick Stephens, AllHabs.net

MONTREAL, QC.– Steve Simmons could be described as Damien Cox Jr. — neither he or Cox garner much respect from hockey fans these days, yet somehow they manage to hold on to mainstream media positions. Simmons is the lead sports columnist for the Toronto Sun.

On the Zdeno Chara hit that came close to ending Max Pacioretty’s life, Simmons tweeted “If you watch it closely, the villain is not necessarily Chara, but the arena.” Oh yes, blame it on the rink.

This movement shares membership with a similar one: “Blame it on the gun.” You know, the one that believes, there are no bad people or actions, just bad weapons.

Simmons was referring of course to the now famous stanchion at the end of the visitors bench at the Bell Centre. It’s not a unique configuration being found at almost every other arena in the NHL. Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli said that it’s common knowledge that players in the league try to use ‘the turnbuckle’ to their advantage when timing their hits — but hastily added that isn’t part of Chara’s game.

“Players are aware of the stanchion, some players try to drive guys in. I know Z’s not that type of player,” said Chiarelli.

With Simmon’s message rolling around in my head, my thoughts drifted to a former neighbour. Let’s call him Robbie (his real name).

When Robbie was a toddler, I received a call to help the neighbours relocate their entertainment center (and most everything else) from the living room to the basement. “Too many buttons for Robbie to play with,” was the explanation.

The move was made more complicated by having to navigate around a maze of nine (yes, nine) baby gates that had been installed once Robbie had started to walk. “We’re baby-proofing the house,” said the proud mom. It was the first time I had ever heard that term.

A few weeks later on a cold January Sunday, I noticed the door open of the house across the street and four large tropical plants were tossed into the snow bank of the front yard. “Baby-proofing,” I said to myself. At that moment it occurred to me: what are they going to do, baby-proof the globe?

It was a valid question because at some point Robbie had to leave his stark surroundings — it turned out that whenever he did, the toddler was a holy-terror. Before a visit, I received a call from the neighbours requesting that I turn my living room into the equivalent of a padded cell. As much as I prepared, Robbie never failed to find something with which to wreak his special brand of havoc.

What his parents failed to understand is that Robbie’s behaviour was the problem, not his environment.

So when TSN’s Daren Dreger suggests that NHL general managers should look at building design next week when they meet in Boca Raton, Florida — he is thinking “baby-proofing” is the answer.

And seated before a US congressional panel, when NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says “that the rise in concussions in the preliminary data from this season seem to be coming from accident events, collisions, players falling and banging into other things, not from head hits.” — baby-gates springs to mind.

Bettman’s position actually is quite similar to Chara’s description of the incident that “…[Pacioretty] leaned and jumped a little bit and just hit the glass extension.”

Chara, Bettman, Dreger, Simmons and many others are ignoring one simple fact. It isn’t that the ice is too hard or that players are clumsy — head trauma and other serious injuries are up in the NHL because of a lack of consistent and meaningful discipline. It’s an issue that the the commissioner is unwilling to even review.

On the hit that left Pacioretty motionless on the Bell Centre ice for seven minutes, ““It was a horrific injury, we’re sorry it happened in our fast-paced, physical game,” said Bettman. “The people in the game that I have heard from, almost to a person, and I will exclude the two clubs involved, believe it was handled appropriately. Our hockey operations people are extraordinarily comfortable with the decision that they made.”

Put yourself in the shoes of NHL VP’s Mike Murphy and Colin Campbell. Regardless of the course of action, would you be “extraordinarily comfortable” with a decision made about a 22-year old athlete who was sent to hospital with a non-displaced fracture of the fourth cervical vertebrae and a severe concussion? I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.

How has the commissioner of the National Hockey League gotten so out of touch with the game of hockey, its players and fans?

I’ll add another group where there is a Bettman-disconnect — NHL sponsors. On Wednesday, in a letter to the commissioner, Air Canada executive Denis Vandal requested that the NHL take “immediate action … to curtail these life threatening injuries,” threatening to end its sponsorship of the NHL. Bettman, still playing the role of ‘see no evil’ dismissed that there is a problem and said that the league will find other carriers if the airline doesn’t want its business.

You rarely see any public dissent from NHL franchise executives. Bettman and Chair of the Board of Governors, Jeremy Jacobs (Bruins owner) rule with a couple of iron fists. Yet, Geoff Molson, owner of the Montreal Canadiens, in a letter to Habs fans wrote, “Our organization believes that the players’ safety in hockey has become a major concern, and that this situation has reached a point of urgency.”

Fans, players, owners and sponsors have all expressed serious concern with the well-being of the players yet the league remains in denial. Workplace health and safety is normally the domain of a union. Yet the NHLPA most often sides with the aggressor advocating for lesser suspensions and trying to protect their loss of salary.

“I don’t know enough about [Chara’s hit] and haven’t had a chance to talk to former players on staff and some current players to get their reactions to it, so I’m going to have to pass on that one,” said Donald Fehr, executive director of the player’s association.

That struck me as a very odd thing to say by a union boss with one of his members coming so close to getting killed in the performance of his duties. It’s also curious that Fehr said the NHLPA would not be asking general managers to look at any issue in particular when they meet next week. Can you imagine this statement in any other industry following a serious workplace incident?

To quickly get Fehr up to speed, I’ll gladly give him the number of a friend who was at the game with his seven year-old daughter. He was faced with the question, “Did he die, Daddy?”

It’s not hard to predict the reaction by minor hockey players and parents. With Bettman saying that the hit and it’s result (a broken neck) are part of the game, it’s not hard to empathize with the protective instincts of the parents and the terror of the kids. What will be the long-term effects of the league’s blatant disregard of its constituents?

The NHL and the NHLPA need to conduct a safety audit of all 30 facilities but frankly, that is a bare minimum and should already be underway. They need to make the arenas safer, but with the understanding that, by doing so, they haven’t fixed the problem. It’s not that difficult, other leagues have addressed similar issues in a much more nimble way.

Scrap the process. Establish supplementary discipline guidelines for categories of infractions and set consistency as a benchmark. Let it be managed by individuals who are not lobbying for positions with teams in the league.

This may be an impossible task until the NHL has a commissioner who values the talent in the game and is committed to protecting them. But that’s a discussion for another day.

Was the Bell Centre at fault for the injury? There was no doubt who was to blame in Pacioretty’s mind, saying “I felt he did mean to do it… I believe he was trying to guide my head into the turnbuckle. We all know where the turnbuckle is. It wasn’t a head shot like a lot of head shots we see but I do feel he targeted my head into the turnbuckle.”

Bad behaviour was the culprit, and the NHL let him walk away scot-free to do it again. They also sent a message that this style of play is a ‘normal’ part of hockey.

Somewhere, Robbie is cheering wildly.. and breaking things.