04-19-2007, 04:41 AM
Back in 1995 A BU freshman Travis Roy was paralyzed from the neck down just seconds into his first college game.
Since then my feelings have grown a bit stronger over the years about the brutishness of the NHL. I'll rabidly defend the tough nature of the game to people who don't like it, and dismiss the NHL as a group of thugs. But at the same time, there seems to be a distinct line in my mind about what's acceptable and what's not.
That line isn't something as tangable as simply saying 'anytime someone knocks out someones teeth, or fractures the other persons skull suspend them'. Of course there's some gruesome injuries that come with playing the game right.
But there seems to be a phenomena where aggressive physical players are sent out on the ice just to inflict damage on the star players of the other team. It's not done with clean hard checks, or verbal abuse, but it's done with cheap shots like the one May sent out to do.
Situations like that are over that line. It's already horrible enough incidents like Travis Roy occur when the game is played right. They have to come down a lot harder on guys like May before something like Travis Roy happens to a star player who wasn't asking for a confrontation.
Cheers,
Munk
Since then my feelings have grown a bit stronger over the years about the brutishness of the NHL. I'll rabidly defend the tough nature of the game to people who don't like it, and dismiss the NHL as a group of thugs. But at the same time, there seems to be a distinct line in my mind about what's acceptable and what's not.
That line isn't something as tangable as simply saying 'anytime someone knocks out someones teeth, or fractures the other persons skull suspend them'. Of course there's some gruesome injuries that come with playing the game right.
But there seems to be a phenomena where aggressive physical players are sent out on the ice just to inflict damage on the star players of the other team. It's not done with clean hard checks, or verbal abuse, but it's done with cheap shots like the one May sent out to do.
Situations like that are over that line. It's already horrible enough incidents like Travis Roy occur when the game is played right. They have to come down a lot harder on guys like May before something like Travis Roy happens to a star player who wasn't asking for a confrontation.
Cheers,
Munk