Fighting takes place in hockey, but in the NHL this is something that is automatically a major penalty and the players are consenting to fight each other. What young and impressionable hockey players watching don't always understand or see: unprovoked actions don't belong and players need to control their anger. It should never be at the cost of another player's health.
When I watch bad hits happen now in the league and players wind up with concussions, I don't understand how people can be so dead set that these types of actions aren't worthy of a suspension. When the Department of Player Safety doesn't do anything, it's confirming that it doesn't think causing one of the worst injuries possible and allowing it to continue is a problem.
Not only does this spread a message to its own players that they can be dirty, but it's spreading a message to younger hockey players that the actions they see resulting in concussions are acceptable. I wonder if the people out there seeing players get concussed and throwing it aside would still be calling hits 'clean' if they watched it happen to not an NHL player, but someone they care about. As someone who has now seen both sides, I can't entirely blame fans that think that way, as I was once on the other side of it too at one point.
It starts with the NHL. It shouldn't take having to go through or witness concussions first-hand to understand the severity of them or why you need to have more discussions on them.
The NHL is the biggest hockey league in the world. They set the tone and are responsible for the messages they send out to viewers. We cannot expect concussions to be taken seriously, or other hockey organizations to follow, if we are allowed to watch professional teams play dirty and not be disciplined.
If a young viewer sees a player they look up to laying dirty hits and failing to be penalized, it's sending a message that hockey is violent and should be played that way. There's a very large gap between physicality and violence, but where is the line drawn if both are given the same response by the league, which is often silence?
A spotter is a place to start for the NHL, ensuring players don't continue and worsen symptoms and are able to monitor them in a professional setting with proper medical personnel. That's only protecting that player after the fact.
Hockey needs a change in pre-emptive measures. Make spotter's jobs easy by allowing fewer concussions happen in the league. Professional players should be taught the effects of concussions and penalized for causing them, and if not, they're just continuing the cycle.
With Bennett specifically, in the case of former teammate Stolarz, he also caused a concussion in Matthew Knies two years ago. Then in the next round, he punched his now-teammate Brad Marchand in a vulnerable position. Bennett did not receive a suspension for any of these actions.
That's two concussions he directly caused, one that he could've caused, and the NHLDPS doesn't seem to think Bennett is playing dangerously. Causing head injuries doesn't seem like a safe play in my view, and now it won't to others as we can already see happening online.
Overall, we've come far in concussion research and helping those who have suffered from them, but the larger issue at play here is why are we actively continuing to let it happen? The NHL is a role model for hockey and its players are role models for viewers.
It's time we start to send a message to end head injuries. The power is in the NHL's hand to prevent these issues not only for their league, but for all leagues and all hockey players in the sake of safety.