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DickieDunn

Brian McGrattan

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ok? Sorry, I'm not really sure what the point of this comment is. Are you suggesting because other sports have an even worse record of traumatic brain injuries that it makes it okay to continue to endorse fighting in the NHL?

it's part of the game and always will be, whether people like it or not.

Grats knows the risks and so does every other tough guy. Just be happy that he is okay and already cracking jokes about it

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it's part of the game and always will be, whether people like it or not.

Grats knows the risks and so does every other tough guy. Just be happy that he is okay and already cracking jokes about it

I'd rather subscribe to the preventative approach instead of Russian roulette approach. I gotta admit, though, the latter definitely gets your heart pounding.

Also just a side note. Just because he's conscious and making jokes and has no obvious immediate neurological deficits doesn't necessarily mean he's okay. Long-term consequences of repeated head trauma don't typically manifest immediately after impact, but rather years later, when these guys start forgetting the names of people around them, struggle with drug abuse problems, impulse-control issues or depression, have signs of Parkinsons disease and so on.

Personally - I feel it's a necessary evil, or an outlet if you will.

Guys in an enclosed playing surface, playing at high rates of speed, physical contact encouraged, and armed with what may be deemed a lethal weapon - yeah - I'd want them to drop the gloves if they're willing rather than to start a stick swinging affair.

Fighting is down as it is...No need to hop onto the bandwagon to eliminate it...IMHO - let the NHLPA make the decision instead of the fan base.

Better not have any butter, or salt on it.....My lead to hypertension, and increased risk of heart disease, and stroke...

Its not an ultimatum. In fact the only time I've ever seen anyone engage in a stick swinging affair was when John Scott was trying to jump Kessel. So, the result of a fight.

Edited by Echolalia

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A bit off topic...

The way things are going - contact sports within the next 20 years might be eliminated in grade/high schools.

Just recently - 'heading' a ball in soccer has been found to be a leading cause of concussions in teens.

I certainly think contact to the head is going to continue to be phased out. Especially as all the research becomes more publicized. Contact in general I don't ever see disappearing.

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I think they'll try to eliminate head contact but I'm not so sure if it will completely ever go away.

In hockey it's easier to do it obviously. (about to get off topic from hockey for a second) But Rugby, Football, and the fighting sports (MMA, Boxing etc) - just impossible to do so regardless of how much research (proven) is shown. They'd essentially have to ban the entire sports.

Hockey is just the easiest one to do it imo. I'm interested to know the stats of head injury/concussions since the more stringent NHL rules have been placed with the league disciplining etc. And to see the long term studies on these players of the current generation and compare it to players of previous generations and see if there will be a decrease in brain injuries.

Edited by kickazz

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See...Even all star caliber players resort to thuggish behavior... :lol:

Lets be honest here.....We'll never be able to limit 'contact' to the body exclusively in any contact sport....Head trauma will always be an issue in contact sports.

for sure. but there's still a lot that can be done to limit the incidence. Crack down on headshots, which the league has already implemented and is working on, crack down on fighting, which is slowly phasing itself out, invest in more research to develop helmets which soften cranial impacts, continue to change the culture of hockey, continue to emphasize respect for the opponent in youth leagues, etc etc. That last one, in particular is also relevant to the McGrattan KO. Fans were eating that s*** up in the stands while the guy is dead on the ice, which really perpetuates the situation.

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Wanna reduce head trauma in hockey?

Eliminate body checks, and any physical contact.

Many will scoff at this notion, but seriously folks...As long as hockey allows physical contact, the speed of the game, the split second change in direction, all the nuances - it's nearly impossible to eliminate head trauma from the game, and IMHO the fighting aspect is minimal considering how it's slowly being phased out by the players themselves.

That's what I'm wondering.

I would like to see a long term study (I'm sure it's already happening) of correlation between hockey head injuries and fighting and/or checking. I'd say there's a direct correlation between both. In which case they'd have to ban both checking and fighting if they want some real results.

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Its not an ultimatum. In fact the only time I've ever seen anyone engage in a stick swinging affair was when John Scott was trying to jump Kessel. So, the result of a fight.

I seem to remember Probert getting a few games for a stick swinging incident with Bob Rouse who was on Toronto at the time.

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That's what I'm wondering.

I would like to see a long term study (I'm sure it's already happening) of correlation between hockey head injuries and fighting and/or checking. I'd say there's a direct correlation between both. In which case they'd have to ban both checking and fighting if they want some real results.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23637116/

Its a rather limited study but they looked at reported concussions between 2006 and 2010 and looked correlations between diagnosis and mechanism of injury, age, height, fatigue, etc. Almost 70% of concussions were a result of direct contact to the head, the vast majority of which were due to blindside checks. Almost 10% were due to fights.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23637116/

Its a rather limited study but they looked at reported concussions between 2006 and 2010 and looked correlations between diagnosis and mechanism of injury, age, height, fatigue, etc. Almost 70% of concussions were a result of direct contact to the head, the vast majority of which were due to blindside checks. Almost 10% were due to fights.

Published fairly recently. Interesting.

I wonder how a follow up study will be 10-15 years from now.

But what I do gather is that the actually hitting is much worse than the fighting. And from the hits it looks like shoulder to head has a 42% correlation. Which makes sense as to why the league has a suspension policy on shoulder to head (as the principle point of contact) hits now. Elbow is the second worse.

Edited by kickazz

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Published fairly recently. Interesting.

I wonder how a follow up study will be 10-15 years from now.

But what I do gather is that the actually hitting is much worse than the fighting. And from the hits it looks like shoulder to head has a 42% correlation. Which makes sense as to why the league has a suspension policy on shoulder to head (as the principle point of contact) hits now. Elbow is the second worse.

yes, in fact, i believe the headshot rule came into place in 2010 so there may have been an internal league study which discovered the same thing that these guys did(this study was 2013 I believe). One of the issues is that the study only focuses on incidents that lead to reported concussions. So if it wasn't reported it didn't make it into the study. It also obviously fails to address long term symptoms, of which many may arise even in the absence of a concussion.

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Published fairly recently. Interesting.

I wonder how a follow up study will be 10-15 years from now.

But what I do gather is that the actually hitting is much worse than the fighting. And from the hits it looks like shoulder to head has a 42% correlation. Which makes sense as to why the league has a suspension policy on shoulder to head (as the principle point of contact) hits now. Elbow is the second worse.

I'm not surprised at all by that. We are talking about very well trained athletes going on the ice with insane speed, acceleration wearing absolute massive shoulder pads. As we've seen the right punch can knock even the toughest of the toughest out, but t he wrong hit with an ellbow or shoulder pad can be even worse.

I hardly believe there is any need to discuss the pros and cons of fighting. Some like it some don't and I couldn't care less what some BR or THN reporter believes. Fact is this, Grats and all others are well aware of the danger, they love their job and in my mind deserve all the credit appreciation in the world.

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Funny reading all the jokes on this thread about how tough Brian is from earlier in the summer and now this guy will be the reason fighting in hockey is gone.

He would beat Maggio 8 out of 10 times. That could happen to any enforcer. He just got careless and was caught.

Fighting will never be gone in minor league hockey. They need it to draw crowds.

Jordin Tootoo

I wish we had a guy like that on our 4th line.

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He would beat Maggio 8 out of 10 times. That could happen to any enforcer. He just got careless and was caught.

Fighting will never be gone in minor league hockey. They need it to draw crowds.

I wish we had a guy like that on our 4th line.

Even our own Probert had some losses, no fighter will win everytime but they have a respect for each other. Maggio got a very good one in and won, kudos to him but there will be a rematch und a pissed of Grats is even more scary than the normal one.

But I for sure don't want to see Maggio laying on the ice like that.

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