Don Cherry: Pro-Concussion, Anti-Puke

It must be hockey season again if Don Cherry is decrying a false loss of masculinity in a sport wracked by damaged brains.

If you're like us, you spent last night frequently switching between TVO's election night coverage and CBC's broadcast of the NHL season opener between the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs. The game was a bit of a snoozer, but Don Cherry's first-intermission rant against new rules aimed to protect hockey players' brains and retired fighters who expressed their concern about the deaths of three NHL enforcers over the summer has turned out to be the biggest story of the game last night.

Cherry, whose descent into senility seems to have kicked into overdrive, lamented that new rules introduced this year that aim to take headshots out of the game would ruin the game by taking hitting out of it. He then showed a highlight package of retired defenceman Scott Stevens concussing a slew of unsuspecting players from the late 1990s and early 2000s, including stars Eric Lindros and Paul Kariya. One would think we should celebrate efforts to prevent having to see athletes convulsing on the ground due to a blindside elbow, particularly in a year when the best player in the game is sidelined with lingering effects of a headshot, but not in Don Cherry's NHL. As the National Post's Bruce Arthur noted, there was a certain irony once the game resumed and Matthew Lombardi, in his first game back after missing almost all of last season with a terrible concussion, potted a goal that turned out to be the game-winner. Cherry then took a minute to call three former enforcers (Chris Nilan, Stu Grimson, and Jim Thomson) "pukes" and "turncoats" for speaking out against the role of fighting in hockey after the deaths of Derek Boogard, Rick Rypien, and Wade Belak. Nilan responded by saying how "sad" it is that that's how CBC must resort to keep its ratings up. At least someone's brain seems to be working.