Protesting Hockey Violence...someone is going to be killed!

With reports today of a Swiss hockey player permanently paralyzed as a result of a violent check into the corner boards in a playoff game, added to the many other violent incidents, including a knock-out punch thrown barely 26 seconds into the game last night between Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators, leaving the rookie Senator unconscious on the ice, if it is not now time to ban such violence, deliberate, premeditated and dangerous as it is, from the game, when will it be time.
In 1976, the then Liberal government appointed former Cabinet Minister, Judy LaMarsh, to investigate violence in the National Hockey League, without any significant impact, either on the violence or on the government. Advertisers then, and presumably advertisers today, believe they can sell more of their product if violence is retained as an integral part of the game of hockey.
No matter what the opinion surveys say, no matter what the accountants say about increased revenue, on the part of the NHL, the individual teams, and the players, the game does not need, nor can it withstand the long-term impact of violence that will soon, as too many knowledgeable observers know and state, result in the death of a player as a direct result of the impact of some misguided act on the part of an opponent.
Hockey is an extremely fast-paced game with large, muscular men careening around the ice at break-neck speeds, on blades so sharp they would kill, if they happened to cut through an carotid artery. One player, a star defenceman from the Ottawa Senators, is already out for surgery to repair a sliced Achilles tendon, sliced on a check by the blade of an opponent's skate.
The puck bounces, careens off various body parts of all twelve players on the ice at any one time, off the boards, the goals posts, and the sticks of all players. Even the puck's unpredictable twists and turns, if received in the eye, for example, as in the case of Eric Stahl of the New York Rangers this week, could result in blindness. (Apparently, Stahl will recover, and will probably wear a complete face guard for the foreseeable future.)
As for the argument that instigating a fist-fight gets the team "going" or motivated, or brings "life" to the arena in an otherwise boring match...these arguments are both futile and irrelevant to the cause of protecting the health, limbs eyes and lives of the players.
Let's not wait until someone actually does die before making the necessary changes to the game....or will greed once again guide the decision to do nothing, and reinforce the status quo?