Right vs Wrong

Let me begin by first admitting something which may surprise many of you but it need be said in any event. I've been wrong before: I was wrong about Iraq, I was wrong about my first wife, I was wrong about school and the list goes on and on. With all of those errors though I have been able to get a few things right and it is the aforementioned errors which have caused me to ponder on issues with a little more diligence then in the past though I will always be a "heart on his sleeve" type of guy. What I have done right is become more selective in those I hitch my horse to. Just because people may be true of heart doesn't always make them right or good for you. 

What, you may ask, is Ted going on about - surely not his life long quest to enumerate his failures. Well I'm talking about the Chara / Pacioretty hit this week and the aftermath. I've listened to an array of opinion on this issue, both by people I very much like and people I would rather spend my day not listening to. What I believe is the result of the hit on Tuesday night, is that it is time for the NHL to change. What I want to see is a great hockey event, with good solid hits, fast skating, blocked shots, great goaltending and skilled scoring. I don't want to see the product which was delivered on Tuesday night, whereby a team which was losing a game soundly, decided that the only way to get back into the game was by intimidation. Did Chara intend to hospitalize Pacioretty? I doubt he wanted to accomplish that, but I don't doubt for a moment that he wanted to eliminate him from the game and send a message to the kid. He has done that and now so has the league. 

Now I know there are many of you old school guys who say "This is nothing new, It's been going on for years" and you know what. You're right, it has been. Cheap shots and message sending has been going on since the game was first iced by the NHL but at the time, so were many other dangerously human traits which we have managed to eliminate. Ken Dryden had a very insightful piece in the Globe and Mail in which he enumerates the things mankind has been stupid about but accepted as normal. Smoking, drunk driving, driving without seat belts, playing hockey without facemasks or helmets all have been eliminated over time and every single event was considered life or sport altering at the time. "Life will never be the same" if I'm forced to stop smoking, drinking and driving or forcing me to where seat belts. Life hasn't been the same because many more people whether victim or perpetrator are around to argue about it. 

It is time again for one of those moments where society steps in and forces those in charge of this sport to change what they perceive as acceptable. Force them to change configuration of the rink - certainly, but also eliminate the decision to plant people into the next century because you can. The sport is not the same as it was. The sport is played by bigger, faster, better athletes. The league is manned by many more people of different persuasions. They all have their human frailties and don't believe for a moment those things are left at the arena door. So in the end I'll hitch my horse to the likes of Ken Dryden, Arthur Cohen, the doctors currently working on the impact of concussions and allow them to mess the game up a little bit in hopes that they save the life and mind of either my kids and grand kids or yours. I could be wrong though....