From: A father, coach and fan

To: All those that consider themselves Minnesota hockey people, Minnesota Hockey, the Minnesota State High School League, all youth hockey associations in Minnesota, AAA hockey clubs, AAA hockey tournament organizers and sponsors, adult hockey leagues, recreational hockey leagues, 3-on-3 hockey leagues, hockey parents, coaches, team managers, hockey referees and hockey players of all levels

Subject: Checking from behind and head contact

As a concerned hockey person in the state of Minnesota, we must not let the terrible and unfortunate injury to Jack Jablonski pass without making improvements to our sport and player safety. We are all responsible for the state of our sport, and we are all capable of coming together in meaningful ways to change our sport for the better.

Now is the time for leadership and bold action so that Minnesota leads the way for USA Hockey. Minnesota can and should be a leader for player development and player safety. Players that play within the Minnesota borders can and should adhere to standards WE create.

I am not attempting to change anything outside our border, but Minnesota hockey is as valuable to our culture as any of our other natural resources. If we ignore our resources, they waste away. Protecting our resources requires effort, and we need more effort on player safety right now.

I have been able to watch youth and high school hockey for many years. I watch very closely the youth association teams that play during the winter, high school boys’ varsity hockey, AAA hockey and offseason development leagues that play during the April to September timeframe. I will admit I see very little youth association girls’ hockey or high school varsity girls’ hockey. My perspective is based upon what I watch and see, and in fairness, I need to disclose what shapes my perspective.

I am deeply concerned about “contact from behind a player near or around the boards” and “contact to the head.” I have witnessed contact from behind at all levels of amateur hockey, which includes our typical winter hockey season, along with the unregulated, unsupervised, ungoverned AAA hockey season. In addition to contact from behind, “head contact” to players and the number of concussed players today is clearly a problem.

I am a firm believer that hockey is a contact sport. I believe Minnesota players work very hard on skating skills, and better skaters can protect themselves better. We need to promote, develop, teach and encourage proper body contact, angling, puck protection skills, body position and battle skills.  We need to teach players how to be safe and protect themselves on the ice.

We need coaches who are willing to spend time on these topics even at the expense of a few wins. We need coaches to control the on-ice behavior of their own players and be willing to discipline players on their own teams that play carelessly.

We need referees to call ALL the infractions and parents, coaches and players willing to abide by the referees’ decisions.

NOTHING STATED HERE IS NEW. I’m sure everyone would agree these statements are for the benefit of our game and for the benefit of player safety. Now is the time to do something. We can start by making penalties that more closely fit the crime.

It is also important to have strong leadership from all involved in AAA hockey as well. Given the growth in AAA hockey, we need leaders willing to make AAA (and every other summer hockey league, camp, development clinic, etc.) accountable to parents that player safety is of utmost importance to develop some of our most promising players that have decided to work on their game throughout the year, not just the winter months.

Parents can help ensure that any and all AAA or summer hockey leagues start to accept some responsibility while they collect participation fees that throwing player safety and caution to the whims of happenstance will no longer be allowed. We can do this by holding back our fees until we see better attempts to set standards of acceptability in play and some way to resolve issues offered up by those that collect the fees.

If a player in some AAA tournament somewhere is checked from behind and seriously injured, where can we turn? Who helps resolve these matters? I am not sure what happens but would certainly like to be educated by someone who can explain this to me.

We pay significant sums of money for offseason hockey development to organizations that accept no responsibility and provide no forum to resolve dangerous actions of players on the ice. It is time that those that profit from our fees provide some assurance that player safety goals are equally as important as player development skills. I do not profess to have all the answers or the magic wand. I would like to offer some starting points.