Ben Fanelli's Hit: What Went Wrong?

On the first of November 2009, Ben Fanelli got hit from behind in the head with Michael Liambas’ elbow. Ben had to be airlifted to a Hamilton hospital and was immediately put in intensive care. He was in critical but stable condition and today he is at home in fine condition. He has skull and facial fractures and a laceration above the eye which was the cause of blood loss. Mr. Liambas is currently suspended for the rest of the season, which ends his Major Junior hockey career. But I’m not here to talk to you about what happened, I’m going to explain some of the things that both Ben and Michael did wrong before the hit occurred.

I think that Ben could have been more prepared before the hit, both mentally and physically. The things that he could have prepared more for mentally would be not turning around and not ducking before the hit. If Ben would not have ducked then he would not have gotten hit in the head, and if he hadn’t turned around then he would not have gone head first into the boards. But the one major thing that Fanelli could have done was do up his chin strap tighter, because then his helmet wouldn’t have stayed on and his head would not be fractured.

But we shouldn’t judge Michael because of this one hit. This kid gets straight As in school, works around the community and cares about a lot of people. When he injured a kid a different time the team (Erie Otters) looked all over the arena and could not find him. It turned out that he had paid a taxi to take him to the hospital so he could apologize to the other player.

I think that the way the OHL punished Michael is unfair. A whole year! Why? If Ben didn’t get hurt as bad as he did, then Michael wouldn’t be suspended for as long. It is based on the injury the person got instead of what the person did. I think that one of the best ways of deciding the suspension would be to match the suspension with the length of time missed by the length of the injury. I think that this is the fairest way to decide this because if you injured someone then you should be out as long as they are. But if the leagues cannot decide on this rule, then they should not look at how hurt the injured player is, they should look at the player that made the injury occur.

In summary, I think that first, Ben should have been more prepared, second, Michael should not be judged just based on this play, and finally, why did they have to suspend him for this long.

Now I’m going to ask you a few questions (if you have not already seen this hit that you should type in ‘Ben Fanelli hit’ on YouTube). Whose fault do you think it is? Do you think Michael should be punished this way? What honestly do you think was going through both of their heads before this hit happened? Thanks, Wyatt.