Dear NHL

Dear NHL Offices, I know you don’t know who I am and for these purposes, you really don’t need to. I’m just an average fan watching at a distance looking at the crumbling of a treasure that I love. I watch the occasional doubleheader here and their on Saturday night, watch a primetime matchup whenever I have the chance to and watch SportsCenter to see my highlights/updates in the morning. I’m not the most qualified to write this letter. Heck I’ve got diploma exams to worry about next week and I bet the 5 people who read it will say the same thing. That I’m just naïve and the game is at a great place. But I feel that at some point somebody has to write this letter concerning the concussion problem the NHL is facing. And maybe somebody has and I’m just that dumb to not read it but it’s my letter so do with it as you will1.

Again I’m not one of these analysts who can give you a “sources say this happened, these things will take place in the GM meetings dah dah dah.” I’m not Darren Dreger or Bob McKenzie from TSN, I’m just an average fan who just wants a solution to the head trauma that players are going through. Concussions are something that any sport has to go through at some point whether it’s hockey or football or even chess2. Whenever I go through SportsCenter, I look at another player getting a concussion and the dreaded words coming out of the broadcaster’s mouth whether it’s Jay Onrait or Rod Smith, “player x has concussion like symptoms” which basically means in today’s NHL, that dude’s gone “indefinitely3.” Whether it’s a fourth liner just trying to survive and get paychecks or a top offensive option needing to supplement the team’s office, the lack of accountability and respect among peers alarms me to the point that if players don’t respect each other and the discipline that Brendan Shanahan doles out doesn’t create a deterrent, it can lead to the deaths of certain hockey players like for example and god bless them: Wade Belak, Rick Rypien and Derek Boogaard, all of which went through CTE scans revealing enormous amounts of brain trauma after their existence as a result of concussions and the results of having to go through substance abuse, depression and things of that nature4.

I’m not writing this letter as an attack of all things hockey because again I love this game. I love the great superstars that we have and the athleticism in the NHL right now. You can make the legitimate argument that while the game doesn’t have the Lemieux’s and the Gretzky’s, we do have the deepest pool of talent in the modern era today in Sidney Crosby (when healthy), Alexander Ovechkin, Patrick Kane and more. While the ratings might not be there when it comes to hockey in the southern United States, there’s a deep reservoir of stars and hidden stars that the game has like John Tavares, Dan Giradi, Shea Weber and it’s cool to be a fan whether you are in hockey crazy Montreal or even places like sunny Florida. My sympathies go out to the following people.

Marc Savard: Get well Mr. Savard, just get well. This isn’t a plea from somebody who needs a jolt in his fantasy pool or someone who needs you to get back and be the dynamic playmaker that you were. Just get well for the sincere hope that you can live a normal life to the best of your abilities. To see momentous occasion in your families life going forward.

Sidney Crosby/Chris Pronger:

Two dynamic individuals. Two respective leaders in their dressing room and for their franchise, two players in tenuous circumstances. One of which looks as though his career might be over as the swan song of his retirement sings louder and louder and for the other, a career emulating Eric Lindros’s career. While Chris Pronger can realistically think of his hall of fame speech and the flyers will have to worry about the next three years at a $4.9 million dollar cap hit, Sidney Crosby in theory shouldn’t. We all longed for the return of Sid the kid. We got our PVR’s ready and anticipated the return of his brilliance. It didn’t took him long to capture our imagination and trout out a four point night in his return back to the NHL5. We’ve watched his every move from playing in Rimouski to capturing gold in Vancouver. He was our Gretzky or at least our successor to Wayne and Mario. And now we wait in mourning and in some cases, we just move on. Crosby, we hope, has much more to give hockey, and in a perfect world, the concussion woes never return after he’s shaken this latest nightmare. However the chapter might unfold and whatever version he comes back. He will never be that kid again. As Crosby 3.0 tries his latest comeback and Ovechkin 3.0 tries to regain that magic that captivated the NHL, Gary Bettman can only wonder and shake his head at sorrow of the rivalry that was suppose to carry hockey into the next decade. You know until all the Stall brothers were ready to play in the league. Now the sport merely holds its breath, hoping one will get rid of the pinstripe suit and the other will shed the unseen restraints he has been wearing.

Colin Campbell: Just kidding

As the NHL moves on into the next decade, concussions will like it or not be the main focus within their game. Again I’m asking not as someone who’s mad but as someone who cares. Someone who doesn’t need mass changes to appease but more so someone just in need of someone who cares for the safety of others. My advice to the NHL, “Just do it” because if you don’t well you’ll have bigger things to worry about then just a 17 year old pleading for change.

1. To the people who don’t read this story I got two words for you: Please read!

2. Have you ever tried playing chess and not being that good to start? Man just saying that is giving me a concussion

3. One of the great words in sports. Indefinitely

4. Concussions, the epidemic ruining the NHL. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=383115

5.. In defense he did play the Islanders. That’s the equivalent of playing against 25 Vince Carter’s on skates


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