No Checks, No Balances: Does Banning the Body-Check Really Reduce Violence?

For the first time, the NWHL has established a player safety committee, a team of five members who will review questionable on-ice plays and dole out appropriate discipline to players who defy league regulations.

After a season of sharing the NHL's department of player safety, led by director Patrick Burke, the NWHL has elected former Boston Pride member Kelly Cooke, Sochi silver medalist Josephine Pucci, NBC sportscaster AJ Mleczko, and ECHL President of Hockey Operations Joe Ernst.

One of the committee's responsibilities is a topic of controversy stemming back decades: the discipline of players who elect to use the body-check. A well-timed body-check involves a player to level their opponent with a swift collision of hips or shoulders, stripping them of the puck and sometimes sending them skyward. Body-checking is a defensive maneuver used freely in men's leagues without any penalty, but banned from all women's and girls' ice hockey leagues, including competitions held on national stages such as the Olympics.

In the NWHL's Rules of the Game, body-checking is, quite blatantly, considered an illegal hit, punishable by at least a 2-minute minor penalty, ranging up to a match penalty.

The opinions on the body-check ban are split, and differ between individual players, fans, and administrators in the sport.

Some players really just want to feel like they're playing hockey.

Matthew Sekeres, contributor to The Globe and Mail, examined the sexist implications of the ban and interviewed players who believed that the ban was detrimental to the game. Angela Ruggerio, an Olympic defenseman inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame last year, expressed her desire to use physicality in the game.

"I'd freaking love to hit," she candidly said. "You don't know how frustrating it is. Players' heads are down all the time and all I can do is poke-check."

On the flip side, other players feel as if the game is safer without physicality. While a well-executed body-check isn't particularly easy for a player to receive, it is not intended to be used as a tactic to injure anyone. But the prospect of injury, especially to players who are clamoring to be recognized, is terrifying.

During the Sochi Olympics in 2014, the Wall Street Journal's Sharon Terlep asked players how they felt about the physicality--or, lack thereof--in the game of women's hockey. US Olympian and former defenseman of the CWHL's Les Canadiennes Julie Chu offered a take that fulfills a familiar narrative among most anti-body-checkers.

"[The body-check ban] allows for more development of the skill of the game, and size isn't a limiting factor for players," she said.

The consensus among those who support the lack of body-checking in women's hockey is that there is no skill in physicality, but rather in offense and speed. Further, physicality is seen as harmful to other players, and a ban on body-checking could mean less injuries overall.

However, videos from the NWHL's last season reveal that the body-check ban does not deter dirty plays or injuries.

Last December, Molly Engstrom of the CT Whale was suspended for one game after delivering a nasty cross-check and multiple punches to the head of Buffalo's Meghan Duggan, who did not return to the game after her injuries.

After looking at this video, it is hard to determine whether or not the body-check ban really accomplishes its goal.

Therefore, the question must be asked: in a sport that demands physicality and contact, is the body-check ban expecting the impossible?

For more information on the NWHL, their new committee on player safety, and how to buy tickets, please visit nwhl.zone!

#NWHL #womenshockey #hockey #playersafety