from Ken Dryden at the National Post,

Head hits. Whether intentional, careless or completely accidental, that distinction matters only to the hitter, not to the player hit. Nor even much to the rest of us now. The back stories — it’s the sort of thing he would do, or wouldn’t do — who cares? It’s about Tavares not Corey Perry, Evans not Mark Scheifele.

And we know now. Everybody knows. Not just the scientists. The media know. Ron MacLean knows. So do Elliotte Friedman and Cassie Campbell, so do Darren Dreger, Craig Simpson, Pierre LeBrun and all the others. They know. George Parros knows, Bill Daly knows, so do all the owners. Jeremy Jacobs, Geoff Molson, Larry Tanenbaum, they all know. Mark Chipman, David Thomson, Murray Edwards, Daryl Katz, Francesco Aquilini, Eugene Melnyk. They all know. Don Fehr, the head of the NHL Players’ Association, he knows. Gary Bettman knows.

They can’t not know, they can’t pretend not to know. They know. And we know they know.

And the players know. Their wives and girlfriends know. Their kids and parents and friends know. The wrenching scene after the Tavares and Evans injuries, the two players on the ice, face down, face up. And their teammates. They’re paid not to know, to ignore or forget, to keep on going no matter what. Their silence. The incredible echoing, deafening silence in the whole arena. Across the country.

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