SHARK WEEK TALE
CANUCKS: Vancouver drops its ninth-straight game in losing to San Jose 4-1
Derek Dorsett believes there’s a place in the NHL game for fighting — not staged fighting — and that player safety should be a prime concern of those running the league.
The Vancouver Ca nu ck swinger has always been of the mind that without a deterrent, the game would deteriorate into stick-swinging, cheap-shot sideshows and injuries would only mount. However, because concussions and the prolonged effects of blows to head have ended the lives of enforcers, it’s a hot-button topic. And what the league has publicly stated in its defence of a class-action lawsuit about the effects of concussions — and what was revealed Monday in unsealed emails between top NHL officials — has created contradictions and confusion.
In private emails, in which most of the exchanges were between NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and his top officials, there was an acknowledgment that fighting could lead to concussions and long-term health concerns — including severe depression — and the reliance on medication to ease pain. The league also considered in the email exchanges whether to eliminate fighting.
Run all this past Dorsett and you get an expected response. He punched his ticket to the NHL with a willingness to defend his teammates. In the 2007-08 season, he had 25 fights in the AHL before making the NHL with the Columbus Blue Jackets. He has fought 103 times over seven NHL seasons and 10 times this season, which is one behind league-leader Cody McLeod of Colorado.
Dorsett is also quick to point out that he has fought seven less times than last season and that the game is trending in the right direction. Goons have gone the way of the wooden stick, but players still fight. They get concussed. They die. There’s no happy middle ground in a violent game. In theory, eliminating fighting should make the game safer, but it could promote a different level of violence, according to Dorsett.
“It’s a contact sport and there will always be issues with it,” he said. “I know what the risks are. I enjoy coming to the rink and sticking up for my teammates in a competitive and physical game. It’s something that I’ve done since a young age and I’m not going to change the way I play — that’s on me.
“There are always safety issues, and the league is going to look at ways to make it safer. The numbers are down in fighting and you’re not seeing strictly enforcers and that’s their only job. Is that coming from coaches, management or the way the league is set up? I’m not sure. There are a lot of things in life where you’re unsure what the future is going to hold and I can’t sit here and predict how I’m going to feel in 10 or 15 years.”
Dorsett stressed that the culture of the game has evolved because players are simply more skilled on every line. If you can’t skate, you can’t play. If you can skate and contribute as a physical force, you will occasionally drop the gloves. But even that is less of an occurrence, and with so much on the line in the post-season, fighting is minimal.
“When I first broke into the league, the night before a game or the morning of a game, I knew the team I was playing and what guys were willing to fight,” added Dorsett. “Now when I come to the rink, I don’t even think about it, to be honest with you.
“There’s a certain level of safety when players handle the situations. ... If there’s a big hit, you might have to fight someone. You might think twice before finishing the check or picking the player you’re going after. If you don’t have that, you’ve got a lot of guys running around with sticks up.”
Dorsett believes he would still have a place in the game — as a forechecker and penalty killer — if fighting was eliminated.
He also said he hasn’t read the unsealed emails about the longterm effects of concussions that mostly come through fighting with repeated blows to the head and whiplash.
“Maybe I don’t read it because I don’t want to read it or because I don’t want to know,” he said. “Or, I don’t read it because I don’t truly believe it. Every year, the science behind it has got more technical. I just know I’m at a good place with it and think it (fighting) belongs in the game.”