Injuries

I've been thinking a lot about injuries lately. Namely, the paradox that exists in sports today. Players are in better shape than ever. They train harder in the off-season than they do during the regular season. Teams employ nutritionists to help players stay on specific diets. The players of today are not only bigger than ever, but faster than ever. And yet, despite all of this, players get hurt today more than ever before.

There are a number of theories attempting to explain this, the obvious one being steroids. That explains why a 38-year-old slugger breaks down in record time, but it doesn't explain why both the Islanders and Mets have had literally more than half their team on the DL at any given point in 2009. A more plausible theory states that the collisions caused when two large, fast athletes run into each other creates a far more severe impact than in the past. We'll come back to this in a little bit. Another theory would be that doctors know more about the after-effects of injuries and prevent athletes from returning from injuries too soon. And, of course, the final theory is that modern players are pampered babies who only care about their paychecks. What's the answer? I don't know.

In the end, it would seem that a lot of this is luck. The Mets were relatively healthy, Pedro Martinez notwithstanding, for much of the past three seasons. This season, they more than made up for their good fortune. While the Mets put $90 million of their payroll on the DL, the Yankees have had virtually no injury troubles this year outside of Alex Rodriguez and Xavier Nady. That's life, especially in baseball, where injuries are almost always incurred outside of person-to-person contact.

But what about hockey? Can you really separate the fact that the Islanders lost over 500 man games to injury in 2008-09 from the fact that they had zero toughness in the lineup on most nights? And can we ignore the fact that the Anaheim Ducks, who routinely lead the league in fighting majors, are the NHL's third-least injured team since the lockout? Yes, luck does play a role, and the top teams usually do a good job of avoiding injuries. But that doesn't mean a team shouldn't use any and all means available to them to avoid injuries. And if avoiding injuries means dressing a goon that actually plays more than two minutes a night, then that's a chance Scott Gordon should consider taking.

Here's the other thing. If we can agree that injuries are getting more frequent, and we can agree that injuries are getting more serious, and we can also agree that injuries in the NHL are preventable on some level, then we can go so far as to state that teams who don't do everything possible to avoid serious injuries are being negligent in protecting their players. Let's face it, hockey is a violent game. Always has been, always will be. And if you watch a game from fifteen or so years ago, you'll see a lot of open ice. That open ice hasn't been taken up by huge pads, it's been taken up by huge players who move a lot faster than they used to and hit a lot harder than they used to. The team that doesn't protect itself takes a serious chance, not only of injury, but of something far more serious than that.

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If you saw last year's AFC Championship Game between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers, odds are good you remember the hit Willis McGahee took at the end of that game. We had people over that day, and some of us were convinced that he actually died after that hit. Turns out he's fine. But he's been demoted to Baltimore's second string and it doesn't even bother him - he's just glad to be healthy. That's not the point. Cincinnati quarterback Carson Palmer was quoted as saying he believes someone will die as the result of a hit during an NFL game. This is a conclusion I have come to myself, and an on-ice fatality in the NHL isn't as far off as people think.

Over the past five years, we've had the Steve Moore incident and the Richard Zednik incident. We've also had Don Sanderson, who died during a fight, but not in the NHL. Despite all this, NHL players refuse to take even the simplest measures to protect themselves. Players wear their helmet chin straps as loose as possible, don't bother to wear face shields, and choose not to wear neck guards, all in the name of masculinity and "The Code", whatever that means. And that's a shame. We all know the NHL will turn a blind eye to all of this until it's too late. And it'd be nice if the Player's Association could get its head out of its ass long enough to ensure the safety of its players, but that won't happen either. Of course, the one player who takes a stand will be mocked for doing so, just as baseball players, writers and fans alike mocked David Wright for wearing a large, but safe, batting helmet last week.

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The point is, this injury epidemic is manifesting itself with random injuries that might seem insignificant, but seem to be building toward larger problems. These are problems nobody seems interested in solving right now. And it seems hypocritical to say that the solution to injuries is to bring in goons, but if that stops even one opposing player from taking a run at your star player, then that's one less injury you have to worry about. Those who argue against the instigator rule are on the right track. More fighting certainly isn't the answer, but at least then the violence is limited to the willing. We don't need tough guys injuring skill players anymore. Hockey has made great strides since the lockout. Let's ensure that the next time the NHL makes big news, it isn't because someone got blindsided and is seriously injured - or worse.