Remember when we all stayed glued to our television screens while the gold medal hockey game in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics had just reached the critical turning point? Both the Canadian and USA star-studded teams entered overtime. All players on the ice glistened with sweat as every moment seemed to last a decade, and every shot stopped the hearts of all fans. But with 12 minutes to go in overtime, history was made. Iginla had the puck in the corner, and with great effort he passed it off to Crosby who with one shot achieved the dream of 32 million and dashed away the hopes of 300 million. That was the moment when Sidney Crosby had achieved all the major keystones that the hockey world had to offer: Stanley Cup, All-Star Game, and the Olympic Gold Medal.
Alas, one of Canada’s greatest heroes suffered a string of injuries at the beginning of the new year causing him a plethora of brain injuries and forcing him to stop playing hockey for the remainder of the season. Many fans had hoped for good news during the off-season, however, at a recent press conference, Crosby remained doubtful as to when he would be able to return to play hockey. Although Crosby has made tremendous improvement, the medical staff refuses to let him play until he has made a 100 per cent recovery for fear of further damage to his body.
This has made the NHL create a storm of a debate over the concept of head-shots and the penalties/consequences that should follow those who commit such atrocities on fellow players. The repercussions of those who have suffered we see now. Crosby said of the 50,000 hits in a typical NHL year, only 50 to 70 of those are head shots. So why don’t we take those dangerous hits out of the game, considering we aren’t sacrificing the rough nature of the sport. Hopefully with time Crosby can return to his love of playing hockey and with a change in rules and how the game is being played we can save the talent on the ice.
