For anyone who follows hockey, and for that matter doesn't live under a rock on Mars, is aware of the incident Wednesday night that ended the season of Erik Karlsson. The injury has caused two big debates in NHL circles, we'll tackle both.
First, anyone who thinks Matt Cooke intentionally hurt Karlsson, with the exception of Karlsson's teammates (emotion is half the NHL game), needs to do one thing. Go try skating for the first time in your life. I'd like to see you throw yourself at 20 MPH into the boards without lifting your leg to protect yourself. If you still feel Cooke did it on purpose, then we're revoking your hockey watching privileges. If you watch the replay at full speed, it's a play that happened in less than two seconds. It simply was a freak accident and nothing more. I saw the exact same play no less than five times while watching the Red Wings game the same night and no one got hurt.
The second debate has come down to skate blades. Ten years ago, players were likely to sharpen their skates no more than once or twice a month. In today's NHL, some players change skates during periods in order to have flawless edges. Granted, with the speed the game is played at now, it's a necessary evil. Players with the speed of Darren Helm and Jan Mursak have to have sharp blades or else they'd go crashing into the end boards all the time causes serious injuries. As someone who sharpens their skates about four times a year, I know and it doesn't feel good when it happens (and I'm not that fast on my skates). However, since 2008 skate blade injuries are on the rise. Helm had the tendons in his arm cut last year by a skate, Mike Modano the year before. Kevin Bieska, Robert Lang and I could list at least three more who've had Achilles tendon cuts thanks to someone's skates, all since 2008. Does this mean it's time to stop sharpening skates. Absolutely not. There already exists a fix to this problem. Kevlar socks.
Some NHL players already wear them, or the sleeves for the arms (just ask Helm). The Detroit Free Press went asking around yesterday and uncovered that Jonathan Ericsson wears them, although he just stopped because they were causing him some irritation. He stated he's going back to them though. I went digging around the internet and discovered something. Kevlar socks cost $35. Honestly, I'm picking up a pair or two for my hockey bag. An NHL team could outfit the whole team, with three pair for 25 skaters, for about $2700. That's assuming they didn't get a discount for ordering 75 pair. When the Vancouver Canucks reported for practice Thursday morning, they were all surprised to find a pair in each of their lockers. That's how easy it is to get them, that was less than 10 hours after the Karlsson incident.
Karlsson was set to make five Million this season (prorated to a little for than 2.9M due to the lockout). Karlsson played 14 games this year, earning him about 900K of his salary. This means Ottawa will pay Karlsson another 2M to not play hockey due to his injury, when $35 could have saved his season. I'm not saying they should be forced on the players, but as an owner putting up over 50M a year in salary, $2700 sounds pretty good for insurance against this kind of injury.
Disagree? Agree? Comment to chime in with your opinion.
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