Hunting the headhunters – Red Baron reflects on then and now

By James Duthie, The Ottawa Citizen, January 17, 2009

The late afternoon was sunny, and crisp, and begging for shinny.

This is our first winter in a new town, and my nine-year-old boy had been asking me for weeks to find him an outdoor rink.

I hadn’t, and for that, like Denis Lemieux, I feel shame. Between the boy’s rep hockey, his two sisters’ dance classes, swimming lessons, Mom’s yoga, and Dad spending all his nights asking other men in make-up if Lecavalier should be traded, there never seems to be time to find a patch of ice. And just … play.

But last Monday after school, all the daytimers were magically clear. So when the kid next door came calling, stick and skates in hand, saying there was a full-size rink at a school just a few blocks away, we were in toques and longjohns at Usain Bolt-speed.
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From CBC Sports
The Ontario Hockey League announced a new rule on Wednesday to address the issue of players losing their helmets during fights, whether intentionally or otherwise.

OHL commissioner David Branch had indicated earlier in the week the rule would be implemented, and it is effective beginning with games on Thursday.

“If a player should remove his helmet or undo his chinstrap prior to or during an altercation, such player shall receive a game misconduct in addition to any other penalties assessed and an automatic one-game suspension,” the new rule states.

If a player removes his helmet and an opposing player doesn’t, the penalty is two games.

If the player’s helmet becomes accidentally dislodged during a fight, the new rule requires linesmen to intervene immediately.

The issues of helmets and fighting have come to the fore in the province since the death Jan. 2 of senior AAA player Don Sanderson.

Sanderson, 21, was in a coma for nearly three weeks after an incident in a Dec. 12 game. The Whitby Dunlops player was without a helmet when his head struck the ice during an altercation with a Brantford player.

The reaction has spanned from those proposing an outright ban on fighting to concern that players will continue to fight with helmets and visors on, potentially leading to more injuries.

Read More: Toronto Star – Times Colonist – Chronicle Herald

DUNLOPS PLAYER SUFFERS SEVERE HEAD INJURY IN FIGHT from TSN
A 21-year-old member of the Whitby Dunlops Senior hockey team remains in critical condition in Hamilton General Hospital with a severe head injury suffered Friday night when his head struck the ice in a fight in Brantford, Ont.

Don Sanderson, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound defenceman who attends York University, is in a coma, according to the Dunlops’ official website. The site’s last update at 11:05am et today said there was some optimism this morning after some movement was detected in Sanderson’s arm.

A member of the Dunlops who was interviewed on a Toronto radio station earlier in the day said Anderson “is on life support.”

Sanderson fought Brantford’s Corey Fulton at 2:14 of the third period. Both players were assessed fighting majors and game misconducts. Fighting in the Major League Hockey, formerly known as Ontario Senior A, is punishable with automatic ejection from the game. According to witnesses, Sanderson’s helmet came off as part of the fight and both players fell to the ice, with Sanderson’s head striking the ice surface.

Sanderson, a native of Port Perry, Ont., played in the Ontario Provincial Junior Hockey League for the Ajax Attack and Trenton Sting.

The Dunlops played Saturday night – beating Orillia/Coldwater 9-4 – with No. 40 stickers on their helmets and Sanderson’s No. 40 sweater hung up over the bench.

FOR RELEASE: December 12, 2008

GATINEAU, Québec – The Brain Injury Association of Canada (BIAC) salutes a recent policy requiring all of BC Hockey’s minor hockey coaches and on-ice personnel to wear a Canadian Standards Association approved helmet during all BC Hockey sanctioned events. BIAC congratulates and supports all sporting associations who adopt helmet regulations for minor hockey coaches.

The new regulation, which went into effect December 1st, 2008, had been in the works for some time, and is meant to prevent the kinds of head injuries which saw one coach slip, hit the ice, and fracture his skull, while another similar accident put a second coach in a coma. A tragic third incident, this past October, saw Strathmore midget AAA coach Ron Ebbesen die after falling to the ice and striking his head.
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