Another Day, Another Head Shot

Fame and the limelight can do funny things to people. Exhibit A - Patrice Cormier.

Last year as a grinding, third- or fourth-line winger for Team Canada at the world junior hockey championships, Cormier was a hardhitting complement to the skill boasted up front by the likes of John Tavares and Cody Hodgson. Cormier, physically mature to the point he looked much older than his teammates, played well, staying out of the chippy trouble into which teammates like Stefan Della Rovere and Chris DiDomenico became immersed.

This year, as team captain, it was a totally different story.

Cormier was nasty and selfish from the beginning, with his first act a head shot on a Swedish opponent. During the tournament, he was occasionally dirty and always on the edge. One of his favourite manoeuvres - I witnessed it first-handed several times - was to punch opposing players in the stomach and groin area during scrums or battles along the boards. He was essentially to the 2010 team what Steve Downie was to the 2004 junior nats squad.

Word leaked out during the competition that he was going to be traded to Rouyn-Noranda, one of those appalling major junior deals in which teenagers are moved around in the middle of school years and seasons.

Canada struggled to keep its cool at various times during the tourney, with Cormier and Leaf prospect Nazem Kadri among the worst offenders. When head coach Willie Desjardins had to give the team a tonge-lashing after the second period of what ultimately became a semifinal victory over Switzerland for undisciplined penalties, Cormier was one of the objects of his ire.

In the end, Canada lost 6-5 in overtime of the gold medal game to the United States, and while Desjardins' coaching and Jake Allen's goaltending received the bulk of the critical reviews, Cormier's leadership of that team was one of the factors that went largely ignored.

He wasn't a great player for Canada. It's hard to say whether he was a good captain. 

But almost immediately upon returning to junior and joining his new team, Cormier has found himself in serious hot water over last weekend's head shot incident in which he came off the bench during a line change and cold-cocked Quebec defenceman Mikael Tam.

Tam has left hospital, and Cormier has been indefinitely suspended and may well be banned for the rest of this QMJHL season, which essentially would mean the remainder of his junior career.

Throughout hockey, head shots are now the No. 1 issue, intriguing given that the majority of hockey fans insist that fighting - repeatedly punching an opponent in the head - is an integral part of the sport.

It's become a gigantic problem in youth hockey, where boys and girls are having hockey careers ended at shockingly early ages by concussions. Junior hockey is trying to deal with the issue with long suspensions, while the NHL seems paralyzed, unable to enact even small changes that would limit the ability of players to smash opposing players in the head and cause concussions.

Earlier this season, Philly captain MIke Richards demolished Florida's David Booth with an unpenalized, blindside head shot, and Booth hasn't been the same since. Once a favourite to make the U.S Olympic team, in the end he wasn't chosen by GM Brian Burke.

The NHL says its studying the issue, but hasn't made a move yet.

So Cormier, a second-round draft pick of the New Jersey Devils, probably felt that decking Tam was, within his sphere of reference, not a terrible thing to do. He'll have to be a physical player to make in the NHL, and play on the edge.

Until all of hockey legislates against this stuff, decides collectively that hitting an enemy player in the head under any circumstances is over the edge, this will continue.

More brains will get scrambled. Sickening and sad.

Comments

[Josh L]

Sickening and sad, indeed. But is there any evidence that lengthy suspensions (what you imply is required) acts a deterrent against this kind of nonsense? I'm not entirely convinced of that.

[Matt]

Well said, Damien.
A collective stance on this at all levels of hockey is absolutely necessary.

[elseldo]

Looks like the Junior game isn't all that different from the NHL. Perhaps thes eplayers were tryig to disproves Mr. Cox's assertation that the Juniors play a more skilled and beautiful game than the pros.

[David Bacque]

Sickening and sad is exactly what it is. Unfortunately it is what guys like Mike Millbury and Don Cherry talk about. In the old days guys like Downie and Cormier would have been dealt with "in the alleys". Now it goes on at a significantly higher rate than years ago. Hockey is a very physical game, sure, but you need to be able to balance things. If we don't have fighting to defend actions like this the suspension must, I repeat, MUST affect his ability to play the game and make a living. Players must learn that deliberate attempts to severely injure another are not acceptable. Body checking is fine but with the elbow pads today an elbow to the chin like that? Guy has to be gone. Period. Or let them fight. What are the odds of the NHL acutally taking a leading position on this? Zero.

[Pat]

I used to be a big hockey fan before it got boring with all the fights and thuggery. Skills were just not noticeable. So I started to follow the juniors, and now I give up.
Cormier, and all who commit bodily harm, should be charged with a criminal offence. The fact this happens on the ice makes no difference.
Contact in hockey is part of the game but now that sheer viciousness has taken over, it's become a fight club.
I'm a senior woman who saw the greats and there has been no comparison since expansion. Too many players needed at the expense of talent.
Looks like I'll be going to the little guys' league. Oh no. There the rough play is in the stands amongst the parents!
Goodbye hockey.

[sdf]

I'm no psychologist, but to me those hits looked like the work of a sociopath.

[Bill Twaddle]

The really sad thing is that this sort of thuggery is rewarded at the NHL level by multi-year, multimillion dollar contracts. That alone is plenty of incentive. Until the NHL shows real leadership in dealing with unacceptable behavior this sort of thing will continue. And don't count on the NHL for leadership. Afterall, how many lives has Sean Avery had.

[Dan Marsh]

Damien,

It comes down to respect players have for eachother in the game. Even your last few sentences where you refer to "hitting an enemy player" reveals the current mind set in many sports. The players on the other team are not your enemy, they are opposing players with the same goals in sports and life that you have.

Dan Marsh
Halifax

[Richard Avery]

"Throughout hockey, head shots are now the No. 1 issue, intriguing given that the majority of hockey fans insist that fighting - repeatedly punching an opponent in the head - is an integral part of the sport." That is exactly the key issue here. Unless and until the NHL at the very least adopts a rule from the NFL book -- players who fight are ejected from the game -- this deadly madness will continue.

[other mark]

Like all hockey fans, I was sickened by what I saw. A cheap shot, with full intent. He stocked his pray from the second he left the bench. There should be no place for this kind of nonsence. However, I don't equate what Cormier did with fighting and I don't see how you can either Damien. Let's be clear. I'm not a fan of fighting either. But the physics of fighting on skates vs. a flying elbow to the head of someone moving in the opposite direction are simply not the same. Fighting also generally involves two aware combatants. These hits to the head are more impactful then any flayling fist fight and generally take the recipient totally by surprise. Would I be happy to see both gone from the game? Sure. But when you lump the two things together focus is lost. Let's get rid of the headshots first, then deal with fighting. Perhaps there would be fewer fights if crap like this wasn't tolerated in the first place.

[Roger McVety]

I just watched the video of the hit by Cormier. This was a blatant, pre-planned, sickening display one player trying to injure someone. There is no other way to describe it. I have seen some cheap shots and this is right up there with the worst.

I hope that the league does what is right here with respect to the suspension and to me that should be a new maximum. I don't think that the rest of the year is out of the question.

This was a personal attack and if it were to happen on the street, Cormier could be charged with assault. If I was Tam or his parents, I would be going to the police.

[PAT]

Another article in the Star refers to him as team Canada hero, that disgusts me. Hockey players are by no stretch of the imagination heroes and this guy especially isn't.
He should have been thrown out of the tournament before it started for his head shot to the Swedish player. Why they
made him captain is beyond me, he contributed nothing except some stuped penalities. This stuff sickens me and I just heard a clip of some of his team Canada team mates defending him - sad.

[Innocent Bystander]

And we send people to prison for dog-fighting??? How can any parent in their right mind send their children to play hockey?

[LouisS]

I want to know why these players aren't jailed. They've committed serious, life-altering assault. Attacks half as serious are not tolerated anywhere else in society. What does it say about Canada, that the law can be ignored to appease the cheering mob, that the Roman circus is alive and well in the hockey stadiums of the country?

[Conn Smythe]

'Cormier's leadership of that team was one of the factors that went largely ignored.' So Canada lost because Cormier was the captain? I don't think leadership was a problem - it is only now a problem because of what has transpired. Let's face it, Cormier's hit was disgusting, but stop drawing some link between Canada's loss and Cormier as the captain.

[rasper]

Sickening and sad, indeed. The rock 'em sock 'em generation at work, with no end in sight. The Juniors voted Cormier captain! The Canadian hockey prototype. MacLean and Cherry, you make me sick. CBC, you disgust me.

[CM]

Don't compare head shots with fighting. It's a specious argument. People willingly engage in fights and to be blunt I'd rather take ten punches to the face than one elbow to the head. I played until the end of University and I probably got 3 or 4 concussions as well as exactly 10 stitches worth of scars on my face. I can tell you that both the concussions and the scars came from elbows and shoulders (some clean but most dirty) and not once did I get badly injured in a fight. An elbow to the head is usually a blind side hit and literally feels like somebody just clocked you with a baseball bat. You know when a punch is coming. You know where the best places to take that hit to your face are. The Cormier hit and the Kassian hit are both different because the player did not expect the hit and was thus vulnerable. Even clean hits are much easier to take when you expect them. The ones that hurt the most are the ones where you get caught admiring your pass or staring at your skates. Head shots and fights are two different things. As a matter of fact I was appalled that nobody jumped to the defence of that kid and Cormier just walzed off the ice protesting the call the entire time.

[Marilyn]

Until head shots are outlawed in all levels of ice hockey, they will continue, and there will be victims, some of whom will be permanently disabled. Let's hope that Tam heals and goes on to play more hockey. The idea that hitting someone out on the street in such a fashion would garner the perp with a criminal record, yet, when it's done on the ice surface, it's just a game, is very scary. All hits above the shoulders, cross checking, charging, and boarding should be illegal within the game of hockey. It will not reduce the likeability of the game one iota, but it certainly will increase the lifespan (or in the very least, the mental capacity) of some young men.

[Rick]

It is horrifying to see that this kind of thing is still going on in professional sports period. Nice to see some of the junior and minor league powers starting to take serious actions against the offending players. I guess the NHL will wait until someone actually dies . . . on the ice . . . in front of a major tv audience, before they take this crap more seriously.

Perhaps one way to weed out the bad apples at the junior and professional levels, is to evaluate players for anger issues and send them to mandatory anger management therapy as a condition of being even remotely considered for future eligibility for any league. Wow, the recent world junior tourney produced some of the most exciting hockey ever and I didn't see one fight. If fighting and chippy play is tolerated, expect more cheap shots. Too bad!

[TOM GAGNON]

ALLOW THE FIGHTING JUST DON'T ALLOW SHOTS TO THE HEAD VERY SIMPLE ANY SHOT DELIVERED TO AN OPPONENTS HEAD(INCLUDING THE REFEREES) SHOULD RESULT IN AN EJECTION FROM THE GAME TWO SHOTS TWO GAME SUSPENSION ETC.
TOMMYGEE

[Dean]

Sooner or later the NHL (and other leagues) will have to penalize any contact to the head. Say a minor for incidental contact, major and automatic suspension for intentional contact.

What Cormier did is completely beyond the headshot issue. That was assault. If Michael Liambis can be suspended for the year for what was a vicious bodycheck (but a bodycheck nonetheless), then Cormier deserves at least a permanent ban.

If the NHL, AHL, CHL and other leagues don't put a stop to this soon, then government and law enforcement will, and I don't think hockey fans will like the result.

[Chris]

Sickening and sad that you trivialize this incident with a fighting reference. A fist thrown from a stationary-yet-hardly-stable player on skates hardly compares to the elbow of a 200 pound player traveling 30 km/h into a player's head...who also is moving at similar speeds in the opposite direction. Poor placement of your opinion there, Mr. Cox.

[Brian]

Damien the problem is many let me start, first off the competition for NHL jobs is probably higher then 25 years ago. More teams are carrying a younger team because of the cap system in place. Another problem you have pro ready kids playing against kids just starting their careers in Juniors. The solution simple when these kids sign pro contracts they should not be placed back into the Junior system but rather to their NHL farm clubs to develop. It is like graduating from High School then going back it just does not make sense. The effect could be the National Junior Championship but it will allow the new junior players to develop freely and not compete against NHL juniors who are bigger, stronger and have more too loose. Another issue suspensions in junior should carry over to the NHL also, there has to be some deterrence against this barbaric and arrogant behaviour. I did not see the purpose of Kadri going back to London he should be playing with the Marlies or Cody Hodson in Vancouver. The positive is more kids could get chances to play in Junior Hockey and thus more talent gets to be seen.
One thing about Cormier it will not be forgotten in the NHL he learn the hard way, that players will treat him hard. He has made his bed now he better get ready to lie in it, the NHL is a completely different animal.

[steve]

It amazes me the NHLPA doesn't really seem to be interested in protecting it's union members on headshots. I know they brought it up last year to the league, but had no success. Hey, if they don't care about protecting the health and careers of their own, why should we? Maybe it is another example of the 'me first', lack of respect today's professional atheletes really have for one another.

[Darnelious]

When it comes to head-shots, I think a necessary distinction ought to be made: (1) Head shots to unsuspecting players during play (aka deer in the headlights) vs. (2) Head shots via dropping the gloves.

The real difference is that when two players drop the gloves 99% of the time it is consensual. Point is - that when players drop the gloves, they understand punching to the face is the norm. I'm pretty sure this is what we cheer for. On the other hand, running someone over with their head down with the intent of hitting them through the ice is what I think is the real problem. Its not that players need to be nicer to each other, but they dont always have to go for the big hit trying to hospitalize the other player for the audacity of having his head down...

Looking back, players now are infinitely stronger, more truculent, and infused with steroids and the like and unless the NHL cracks down on 'dirty' head shots, we will continue to see multitudes of head injuries and eventually permanently disabled hockey players until there is a little more respect or harsh penalties for attempts to injure.

I'm all for violence, blood and guts, but where's the glory in shooting down a guy that never saw you coming?