Decimating a great game

So much for any remaining NHL afterglow following the marvelous hockey played during the Olympics.

Matt Cooke of the Pittsburgh Penguins took care of that on Sunday, when he leveled Boston Bruins star center Marc Savard with a blind-side hit to the head, leaving him with a grade two concussion. Because shoulder hits to the head are legal, Cooke was not penalized. On the other hand, there is no timetable for Savard’s return.

As it happens, the NHL general managers began their general meetings on Monday, and the topic of “hits to the head” was already on the agenda. The league had commissioned a two-year study to look at ways to reduce concussions. The league estimates that there are 60,000 to 70,000 body hits a year, and during the past 2 1/2 years, 200 concussions were reported among players.

So the league actually has to think about this? Are the GMs suffering a collective concussion? Or are they blinded by what they believe fans demand in order to plunk down money to watch a pro hockey game? Why give the minority of sadists for whom this type of violence appeals any weight at all?

“We’re looking at can we reduce concussions that come from legal hits?” said Colin Campbell, the NHL’s director of operations. ‘‘…What we don’t want to do is damage one of the basic fibers of the game.”

When did maiming someone’s brain become a basic fiber of the game? During the brawly, bad-boy, “Slap Shot” days of the 1970s, the league gained its reputation for fighting and violence. Yet, during that time, as others point out, players didn’t endure the concussion-inducing blind-side hits that today’s NHL enforcers are known for.

“The hits are great until someone gets hurt,” Campbell said. “The question is, do we want to take shoulders out of the game of hockey.”

Savard is hardly the first player to get “hurt,” as Campbell casually puts it.

Concussions are already a big risk in hockey and all contact sports. So banning a specific “legal” hit that takes no skill, and would eliminate some of the worst injuries, would seem like a no-brainer. Just as hockey sticks to the head are a violation of the rules.

Yes, enforcing the ban would take discretion by the referees. Because, as Cooke said of his decimation of Savard, he was only “finishing his check.”

But we think — much like pornography, hits below the belt in boxing, and roughing the passer in football — referees and fans can recognize an unsportsmanlike, potentially deadly blow to the head when they see one.

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