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Son of a Wing

10 former players sue NHL for concussions

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From CBC:

Another group of former NHL players has joined the fight for compensation for head injuries they say they incurred while playing, while at the same time targeting the violence of the game that they believe brought about those injuries.

Retired players Dave Christian, Reed Larson and William Bennett filed a class action lawsuit in federal court on Tuesday alleging that the league has promoted fighting and downplayed the risk of head injuries that come from it.

"I think the glorified violence is really the Achilles heel for the NHL," said Charles "Bucky" Zimmerman, an attorney at Zimmerman Reed that filed the lawsuit on behalf of the players. "If anything comes of this, the focus on the glorified violence and perhaps the change to that will be a good thing."

The lawsuit, which is similar to one brought by former football players against the NFL, joins others filed by hockey players in Washington and New York and seeks monetary damages and increased medical monitoring.

"As we have indicated earlier, another lawsuit of this type is not unexpected," NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said in an email to The Associated Press. "It's the nature of these types of cases that once one is filed, a number of similarly styled cases follow. Nothing changes our belief that all of these cases are without merit and they will be defended accordingly."

The NHLPA declined to comment.

Zimmerman also worked on the football litigation, which resulted in the NFL agreeing to pay a $765 million settlement to thousands of former players. That settlement is still awaiting a judge's approval, but the headlines it generated have been partially responsible for hockey players mounting their own case against the NHL.

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Four observations:

1) The League's (via Daly's "script") attitude that regardless of the number of lawsuits filed, none will amount anything.

2) The "no comment" from the NHLPA

3) Zimmerman has been down this road before but Uncle Gary is a real challenge and

4) Maybe they should consider suing Jofa.

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I hope they win. Maybe then the NHL would take head injuries more seriously. How many times have we seen players give premeditated crosschecks to the head, and get a small slap on the wrist. Hell we've seen a player with concussion history have his helmet removed, and head slammed into the glass. We've even seen it with the helmet still on. It's time for the NHL to be proactive, and not wait until a career ending concussion happens from one of these actions.

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I hope they win. Maybe then the NHL would take head injuries more seriously. How many times have we seen players give premeditated crosschecks to the head, and get a small slap on the wrist. Hell we've seen a player with concussion history have his helmet removed, and head slammed into the glass. We've even seen it with the helmet still on. It's time for the NHL to be proactive, and not wait until a career ending concussion happens from one of these actions.

Yet if a player's stick reaches around and meets the body, they're gonna call that every time. And God knows, they DO.

Edited by themcityblues

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Yet if a player's stick reaches around and meets the body, they're gonna call that every time. And God knows, they DO.

If I were the players I would bring up those incidents to the judge. Just to show negligence on the league's part now, when they are "trying" to prevent concussions. It may sway the judge in their favor.

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Yet if a player's stick reaches around and meets the body, they're gonna call that every time. And God knows, they DO.

If I were the players I would bring up those incidents to the judge. Just to show negligence on the league's part now, when they are "trying" to prevent concussions. It may sway the judge in their favor.

The first step should be getting lawyers who have a basic knowledge of the game.

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