Up until ten years ago or so, everything in a hockey game was settled on the ice. Wins, losses, bad sportsmanship, and illegal hits were simply seen as a part of the game.
Hockey is a contact sport. Every arena you walk into has notices posted about flying pucks, and assumption of risk simply for being in the arena. This is a way to limit liability, and often required by insurance companies.
On Tuesday, a Quebec Superior Court sent a message. They sent the message that illegal hits from behind can cost you for the rest of your life. They sent a message that players need more protections against such conduct, and those that do not afford those protections will eventually pay.
Andrew Zaccardo was a 16-year-old forward with the Midget AA Laval Patriotes when he was hit from behind along the boards by Royal de Montréal defenceman Ludovic Gauvreau-Beaupré just 39 seconds into a game on Oct. 3, 2010.
Zaccardo went into the boards head first, suffering a damaged spinal cord that left him with no use of his legs and only limited use of his hands and arms.
The 24-page judgment ruled that Gauvreau-Beaupré’s hit on Zaccardo was not accidental and found him at fault.
Ludovic Gauvreau-Beaupré, who later play in the QMJHL and currently plays in the LNAH, known for being the biggest “goon league” in North America, had “not only the time, but the duty to stop or change direction” when Patriotes de Laval opponent Andrew Zaccardo hit the brakes near the boards just a few seconds into an Oct. 3, 2010, game.
Instead, he hammered the smaller Zaccardo into the sideboards, leaving his feet to initiate the hit in the process.
He and the Chartris Insurance Company of Canada, which insures players in leagues associated with Hockey Canada and Hockey Quebec, are responsible for paying the award.
The message is simple. We all know there is a certain amount of assumed risk when you play hockey. Bones break, teeth get knocked out, and bruising happens. This is all easily understood and known when the player first puts on his skates.
What is not an assumed risk is the out of control player who deliberately try’s to hurt you.
The hockey rink is a place to play a game. It is a place to learn, to grow as a person while overcoming physical challenges. It is not a law free zone where anything goes.
Joe Hughes
