Burgundy and Blue: Time for NHL to amend on-ice injury rule

As far as memory serves, hockey prides itself on being the toughest of the tough, or at least up there. Rugby, for my money, takes that crown, but that’s another discussion for another time.

Hockey players continue through broken noses, jaws, hands and ribs, separated shoulders, collapsed lungs and so on. I mean, Peter Forsberg played the remainder of a playoff game with a ruptured spleen, which not only sidelined him after emergency surgery for the remainder of the postseason but also the next regular season.

It’s almost serendipitous that one such example of the NHL’s ruggedness happened three years ago Monday, when then-Columbus Blue Jackets forward Matt Calvert took a slapshot to the dome, left to get his bloodied face stitched back up, and returned to score the game-winning goal.

On Saturday, Calvert, now with the Colorado Avalanche, took a shot to the face again, this time from Vancouver Canucks center Elias Pettersson. Calvert immediately fell to the ice and started bleeding from the side of his head.

Thankfully the referees, despite Vancouver holding possession of the puck late in the third down by two goals, put the health of the player above all else and stopped the game.

Just kidding. Of course, the refs didn’t stop play. In fact, just a short 12 seconds later — which probably seems like an eternity to someone literally bleeding from a hard rubber object hitting him in the face — the Canucks scored.

And boy were the Avs furious, and rightfully so.

“For me, we’re talking about head injuries and whatnot, and that’s the second time now in two weeks for us that a guy takes a puck in the face and is bleeding all over the ice and (officials are) letting it go,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said after the game.

“He’s not moving, so I just think we should blow it dead. Sometimes it’s a tough call to make because you’re trying to let the play go and seeing if he’s going to get up. But I think eventually you should just blow it dead.”

This is a family show, so I won’t tell you how many expletives Erik Johnson used in his quote to The Athletic, but look it up if so inclined.

By rule, if a player is down on the ice and can’t continue or get to the bench officials are directed to let play continue until said player’s team secures the puck. Play shall not be stopped even if his own team has a scoring opportunity.

That is, unless an official deems the injury serious enough to stop play immediate, which should have happened Saturday night. Heck, even the team’s trainer was halfway out to Calvert before discovering play was still underway.

But why even leave it up to referee discretion, which if deemed faulty only serves as a place to lay blame in a situation that most likely is more complicated and hectic than it appears to an on-looker?

Sure, revising the rule to stop play whenever a skater falls to the ice undoubtedly leaves room for exploitation. Players could fake an injury to stop an attack in their zone or to kill their opponent’s momentum.

However, there are ways to combat such blatant flopping. In the NFL, it costs a team a timeout if an injury occurs late in the half. There are fines and suspensions levied in the NBA and MLS for flopping.

But most of all, hockey seems to value integrity and sportsmanship above most other sports — and above toughness.

We can’t entrust players to police themselves in these situations? Because something needs to happen before another serious incident occurs.