from Tony Gallagher of the Vancouver Province,

After watching the World Hockey Championships this past couple of weeks, you have to wonder at what point the NHL will begin to face reality.

We speak here of the failure to recognize how the entertainment value of their product is on a downhill slide.

We speak of their continuing insistence, for instance, on keeping their ice surfaces at exactly the same size as its always been, despite the fact the game is almost choking itself to death given the increase in the size of the players and the speed at which they move.

It’s a simple case of physics the NHL types simply won’t face.

You have bigger, faster players in better shape than they’ve ever been, racing around in the same confined area. That means more collisions and at a greater impact level, and as a result you’re getting the kind of horrific injuries you do, including concussion and skyrocketing injury rates that demand more and more depth in organizations. And more collisions mean more defence.

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