The NHL has returned to a season that, before the Olympics, probably had been most memorable for its horrible head injuries. It's hard to say which was worse: Darcy Tucker getting knocked out by Tuomo Ruutu and hospitalized, or David Booth being carried off the ice in a stretcher after being slammed by Mike Richards. Chris Drury, Patrik Elias, Jonathan Toews, seemingly half the Minnesota Wild roster -- they've all missed serious time with concussions. After a decade in which concussions drove at least 30 NHL players into retirement, hits to the head just seem to keep getting worse in hockey.

But as NHL general managers get ready to discuss possible rules changes this month, the debate over hockey concussions is on the verge of collapsing into predictable squabbling. Safety advocates want to ban hits to the head; "Hockey Night in Canada" analyst Mike Milbury says, "Someone is going to die every day. If you don't want to get hurt, then don't play the game." In December, Charles Tator, a respected neurosurgeon at Toronto Western Hospital, made waves by denouncing HNIC legend Don Cherry as a "negative influence," saying, "He's not in my office when mothers tell me, 'There's a bounty on my son's head playing hockey.'" Asked about Tator, Cherry replied: "I don't give a f--- about him."

I could go on about the risks and consequences of concussions in hockey, and what the NHL has and hasn't done so far in response. In fact, I have, at considerable length, and won't repeat that exercise here. What I do want to make clear is that this shouldn't be an argument rooted in anecdote: The NHL hasn't published data on concussions, but there are scientists who have.