Articles lambasting leagues and referees for disciplinary inaction have become so trite I'm loath to further clutter the discourse.

How's that for clutter?

All I can really say is I don't know if I have the guts to watch another hockey player's unconscious body drop to the bloody ice.

Just like I don't have the guts to watch a hanging. Or, if you prefer the 21st-century version, I don't have the guts to watch an Internet video of a hanging.

And yet I continue to watch, probably for fear that if I look away I'll miss something truly horrifying, and therefore be left with little to say, think or feel.

Whitehorse's Ted Stephens – a forward for the Moncton Wildcats in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) – suffered a concussion Saturday in a game against the Acadie-Bathurst Titan.

Stephens and Titan defenseman Christophe Losier chased the puck behind the net.

Stephens had a step on Losier until the two were roughly a metre from the boards. Stephens pulled the brakes.

Losier came in too hard and drove his shoulder into the nape of Stephens' neck, face first into the dasher board.

QMJHL referees for the game Andre Dupuis and Mario Maillet gave no penalty in a game that had seen both teams accumulate 30 penalties.

Stephens had an eerily similar experience on Sept. 22: he suffered a concussion after being hit by two Rimouski Oceanic players and missed nearly four months.

No penalty called. No disciplinary action taken by the league following a review of the play.

I spoke with Ted's father Jim about his son's concussion for a story in Wednesday's Star.

On Thursday I read another column by Moncton Times and Transcript writer Neil Hodge about the QMJHL's disciplinary inaction regarding Ted's case.

The league's verdict: Losier will go unpunished for his hit on Ted.

What could Jim say now about the verdict that he hadn't said Wednesday about the hit?

Call dangerous hits. Referees should take control of a game. Coaches should take control of their players. Players should take control of themselves.

He recommended I read the Hockey Canada's official rule book, as he had.

I promptly skipped past the fair play initiative and announcement at the top and settled on checking from behind.

Aside from noting that the severity of the penalty is left to the discretion of the referee, Rule 53, Checking from Behind, states in part: "If a player is injured, a major penalty and a game misconduct penalty must be assessed.

"Where a player is … body-checked, pushed, hit or propelled in any manner from behind into the boards … in such a way that the player is unable to protect or defend himself, a match penalty shall be assessed.”

In Ted's case, the referees probably should have called at least a minor penalty, whether, after you've watched the video, you think the hit was especially dirty or malicious or not.

North American media blew up when Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby – with his NHL-leading 66 points in 41 games – was sidelined on Jan. 5 with a concussion after hits in back-to-back games.

Media graduated from that incident. Which is to say it's used as background for the following item.

Now the media's onto the sort of violence reserved for the deep recesses of the Internet. Or, these days, Sportsnet.

The NHL today announced that Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara's hit on Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty – who suffered a severe concussion and broken vertebrae after being pushed into the partition separating the benches – will go undisciplined following a review by Mike Murphy, the league's senior vice-president of hockey operations.

Unlike Losier, Chara received a major penalty and a game misconduct.

But hey, these are the big leagues.

Now Montreal police have launched an official investigation into the hit, according to the Montreal Gazette, which also carried a story about how Air Canada is threatening to withdraw NHL sponsorship.

In all this, I've found myself effortlessly pondering the lengths the leagues, referees, coaches, players and fans will go to before a change is even considered.

What injury will qualify change?

Does it really matter? Do I want change? Does anyone?

Maybe not. Maybe icy indifference is the proper change.

That'd take guts.