Sports

Heads up, NHL: Call Beukeboom

Not even the zero-tolerance rule on head shots adopted five years ago by the Ontario Hockey League is a guarantee against concussions.

Case in point, 20-year-old Brock Beukeboom, son of former Rangers defenseman Jeff Beukeboom. A 2010 second-round draft pick by the Lightning — traded to the Blues on Friday –Beukeboom is suffering from a brain injury sustained a couple of weeks ago playing for Sault Ste. Marie.

“He got blindsided by a guy coming out of the penalty box,” Jeff Beukeboom, working as an assistant coach for Sudbury of the OHL, told Slap Shots by phone this week. “It looks like they’re pretty much out of the playoffs, so I’m hoping that they’re cautious with him.

“The rule says no head shots, but in my opinion they don’t call it enough or enforce it well enough. I’ve seen it many times.”

Jeff Beukeboom is in a unique position: A former NHL player whose career was cut short by a series of concussions he sustained in 1998-99 — the first on a sucker blow from behind from the Kings’ Matt Johnson — who has a son with a future already in some jeopardy because of the same health issue.

He has insight that would be valuable to both the NHLPA and NHL, yet he has not been contacted by either organization, even though we’re told the union is in the talking stages of producing a documentary for its members featuring players affected by concussions.

“I heard from the Players’ Association for the first few years after I retired, but not since then,” said Beukeboom, who currently is symptom free, but suffered through a couple of months of headaches last year after being bumped in a pick-up hockey game.

“I’d be happy to share my viewpoint for whatever it’s worth, because I think it’s important to get as much information as possible on the subject and to shed light on it.

“I think the NHL is going in the right direction, and I think there’s certainly more attention being paid to this issue now because of Sidney Crosby. So hopefully this will be studied and data will be updated and analyzed to make the game safer, even though everyone should understand that no rule can guarantee anyone’s safety.”

Beukeboom, whose name is eponymous to the game he played as Brian Leetch’s partner, said that he is unsure whether the OHL rule would translate to the NHL.

“It’s not for me to be judge and jury,” Beukeboom said. “I think if a player is coming up the wing with his head down, it should be perfectly legal to hit him; that shouldn’t be taken out. But the play on which [Marc] Savard got hurt, I don’t think there’s anyone who feels that sort of thing belongs in the game.

“What was that, if not intent to injure?”

What that Matt Cooke assault on Savard last March was, was a seminal moment. Had the league done its duty and suspended the Pittsburgh winger for the remainder of the season and playoffs instead of going into contortions to excuse Mario Lemieux’s employee, the precedent would have been established and the baseline honored.

Instead, the issues of concussions, head shots, crime and punishment have all but overtaken the league.

“It’s the size of the players and the speed of the game, but one of the factors also is that the competition is so much more intense on a nightly basis because of the parity in the league,” Beukeboom said. “There’s so much more at stake every night, that everyone finishes checks instead of back when I was playing, and only some guys did on any kind of consistent basis.

“It’s every shift now, beginning in October and November, because a bad shift can cost a game and a few games can mean a playoff spot. When I was playing, there were a lot of bad teams, so you could almost pick your spots, but not now.

“There’s a lot that goes into this entire issue. I don’t know that there are any easy answers, but at least it’s a sign of progress that people seem to be asking the questions.”

The Maple Leafs appear to have gotten market value in a first and third from the Flyers for Kris Versteeg
, but wouldn’t Toronto GM Brian Burke
sign up now for that first-rounder to be as good as the 24-year-old Versteeg?

Jacques Lemaire
is the right person at the right time behind the Devils’ bench, no doubt about that.

But this is the same coach for whom the team came up miserably short in the first round last season, and this is the same coach who didn’t want Ilya Kovalchuk
matched against Chris Pronger
in that five-game loss to the Flyers when that’s exactly the match that would have served New Jersey, is it not?

Has Mario Lemieux issued another statement lately?

The Bruins sure seemed to surrender far more than necessary to Toronto in order to get Tomas Kaberle
, who had a no-trade clause and therefore was in reasonable control of the process. Instead of holding the line, Boston GM Peter Chiarelli
seemed to send Maple Leafs counterpart Burke a freebie as compensation for the Phil Kessel
deal.

What’s next, the Penguins sending Jordan Staal
to the Rangers for a fourth-rounder as clawback compensation for the Syl Apps, Jr.
Glen Sather
fiasco?