Manitoba Moose

If the chase-your-tail debate about head shots and other noggin knocks is giving you a migraine, you may have an empathetic connection to the Manitoba Moose.

Especially the head-hurting part.

The already-banged-up Moose, in a recent run of five straight excessively violent games marked by low respect and unsafe work by officials, have lost two more players indefinitely.

Mike Funk and Matt McCue are suffering from the symptoms of concussion, victims of unpenalized charges by angry opponents. In Funk's case, it was Texas's Luke Gazdic. McCue was run by Toronto's Jay Rosehill.

The NHL, which provides all major style and rule directions for the developmental AHL, has been pondering the head-injury subject for some time. The tone of the league's GMs seems to be shifting in the wake of recent hits by or to high-profile players, but that's not making the working conditions any safer today.

Funk, who has now had three concussions in the last year and seems likely to be out for an extended period, gave his first interview Wednesday after his most recent head injury, inflicted on Nov. 7 in Texas.

"I've been watching a little of what's happening," he said. "I think you have to keep the physical play in hockey. If you take it out, it's not going to be hockey. But guys going out meaning to hit people in the head... there have to be more precautions."

Asked what he'd tell NHL general managers were he invited to speak to one of their committees as a pro player and concussion victim, Funk didn't waffle.

"Same thing," he said. "I'd want them to keep the hitting in. Eliminating the head shots will be quite a tough thing to do, but I'd tell them to calm things down, tell the players there's a time to be physical, but when they're not facing (an opponent) or the guy's in a vulnerable position or doesn't see the hit coming, that's when there should be bigger suspensions."

That S-word was one frequently flowing off the lips of Moose coach Scott Arniel on Wednesday.

The coach is clearly agitated by what he's seen, not just in the last 10 days, but in the last few seasons.

"I think there should be a mandatory penalty for the blind-side hit, automatic three games first time it happens, no ifs ands or buts," said Arniel, a former NHLer. "Any blows to the head straight on, elbows, maybe a one-game suspension -- automatic. Not a fine for one guy and suspension to the next. Hands or elbows to the head, should be automatic.

"And if a guy's looking at a guy and he gets run over, well, that's part of hockey. You have to work to get out of the way."

Arniel said he also believes that helmets should stay on during fights and that helmet chinstraps need to start functioning as more than decorations. Above all, no matter what the new possibilities for rules like the Ontario Hockey League's no-head-checks standard, the coach said recent happenings point to one thing. 

"Those could work, but more in the AHL, we need the two-referee system," Arniel said. "To me, always the easy out is for the (referee) to say he never saw something."

The lack-of-respect factor is integral to this debate.

Funk said it's growing clearer by the day.

Arniel was more blunt.

"It doesn't seem that the players can police themselves," he said. "It seems the players are trying to hurt each other."

Moose GM Craig Heisinger said he most wants to listen to people who have been inside the glass lately -- the players or ex-players who know what it's like to chase a dump-in.

He likes the fact that new AHL vice-president Rod Pasma has dished out some tough love on head shots already this season -- a welcome change -- but worries about a changing game.

"Deliberate head shots don't belong in the game," Arniel said. "I don't know that there are any more than there were 15 years ago, but the size and speed of the athlete and the velocity of the collisions are greater. And there's less give in all the new buildings.

"It's not like getting hit in the old Aud in Buffalo, where the glass would bend down to the floor and spring back, or in old Boston Garden or Chicago Stadium. Those days are gone."

Along with the respect, which will be difficult to bring back with rules. But late or not, you've got to start somewhere.