David Perron was at the center of a contentious concussion debate last season. (Jeff Roberson/AP)

By Stu Hackel

David Perron has the potential to be exactly what the St. Louis Blues need: an exciting, high-scoring winger who can create and finish scoring plays. He hit the 20-goal mark in his third NHL season at 21 years old, and last season had five goals in his first 10 games as the Blues went 7-1-2.

Perron was concussed in his 10th game on a blindside hit by the Sharks’ Joe Thornton and the Blues were never quite the same again. They missed the playoffs and Perron missed the rest of the season. Now the word out of St. Louis is that he won’t be ready for training camp and that’s just not good news.

Perron’s plight hasn’t gotten the attention some other more well-known concussion victims (like Sidney Crosby and Marc Savard) received, but his injury was no less devastating and it seems to have had a larger impact on his team. It has served as a flashpoint for how the NHL sometimes negatively reacts to change, although this incident certainly played a role in the league recognizing the need to make Rule 48 stronger for next season.

And Perron’s situation also serves as an important reminder of why concussions are so insidious, because every one is different and they sometimes can be very difficult, if not impossible, to immediately detect and diagnose.
Read More…

By Stu Hackel

Headshot Theatre is staying open late this season, maybe all the way into the playoffs, as Raffi Torres of the Canucks clobbered the Oilers’ Jordan Eberle in the video above during Tuesday night’s 2-0 Edmonton victory. The blow earned Torres a five-minute major for elbowing and a game misconduct. We’ll learn sometime before Thursday, when the Canucks host the Wild, if Torres will be suspended.

Looking repeatedly at all three angles on the replay, it’s not clear that Torres actually led with his elbow. In fact, it looks more like contact was made with his shoulder. And if Hockey Ops sees it that way, too, Torres might not get any time off. Or he might, since Eberle’s head was targeted. Or he might not, because he was traveling north-south, which removes the blindside element. Hey, you never know.
Read More…

By Stu Hackel

When the NHL resumes its deliberations on what will constitute an illegal hit to the head next season, the one above by Toronto’s 6-foot-4, 243-pound defenseman Mike Komisarek on Colorado’s 5-foot-10, 170-pound rookie Mark Olver will be among the most contentious types of blows. It left Olver trying to crawl off the ice, weakened and apparently dazed, unable to make it back to the bench. He left the game and did not return.

This was not an illegal check under the current rules. But it is a perfect example of the challenges the NHL faces as it mulls the changes it needs to reduce concussions.
Read More…

In a tight fight for a playoff berth, the Blackhawks could ill afford to have forward Patrick Sharp go down with an injury after he had proved to be very effective on a line with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. (Photo by Bill Smith/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

The Capitals’ surprise announcement on Monday that Alex Ovechkin would be sidelined for the next week-to-10 days while he heals from an undisclosed ailment (perhaps the dreaded “upper body injury” to his lower body) was followed on Tuesday with word that the Kings have lost winger Justin Williams for 3-4 weeks with a separated shoulder. The word on Ovie came a day after the Blackhawks said that top center Patrick Sharp would be out with a knee problem.

The injury parade in the NHL, especially to so many important players, has never seemed as long. At this stage of the season, some of these absences either have already had, or will have, an impact on the stretch drive and into the playoffs.

As with Ovechkin, some clubs seem intent on resting key players who have some knocks and dings so that they’re in better shape for the playoffs. Those teams feel they’re already safe in their playoff positions and are looking ahead to the spring tournament. Others don’t have that luxury and may not have some key players at 100 percent when the postseason starts.

Here’s a look at the teams that are still in the Western Conference playoff picture and how their current injury situation affects their chances. (Click here for the Eastern Conference.)
Read More…

By Stu Hackel

Say this for the NHL: This league can, at times, respond to the problems it faces with some degree of swiftness and decisiveness. The image of the league — which is well-earned and still deserved in some instances (like 15 years to rid the rinks of seamless glass)– is one of an organization that changes at a glacial speed. But the GM’s have met, discussed and deliberated some serious issues this week against the backdrop of a few truly harrowing incidents in the past few months. At times, those incidents made the game seem out of control, and the GMs recognized areas that needed to be fixed and have begun the process of fixing them.

They were able to do so because of some internal help — the Hockey Operations Department seems again to have gathered relevant statistics, video and other evidence to crystallize the issues, and influential owners have gotten involved. There has also been some external help — the scientific evidence of progressive brain disease in former enforcers, as well as reaction by fans, media and, for the first time, sponsors to some of the worst situations the NHL has witnessed in a while.

Some of the changes being proposed this week in Boca Raton have been in the works for quite a while. A few have been more immediate responses to newer events. But if the league was hoping to answer its critics and allay the fears of fans and sponsors, it did a good job. Now comes the hard part: getting all these good proposals and pronouncements to produce a safer game that continues to be entertaining (and TSN’s Bob McKenzie, speaking on Wednesday’s “Morning Show” over Montreal’s Team 990 radio, adds that how these proposals will look as rules is still unknown; his very interesting take can be heard on this page).

Read More…

By Stu Hackel

The NHL GM’s are meeting in Boca Raton, Florida, this week discussing, among other things, hits to the head. They are expected to have some recommendations on Tuesday and will likely speak about their session publicly as they did yesterday. Shortly after Penguins General Manager Ray Shero went on the NHL Network early Monday afternoon (video above) to discuss that morning’s session, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman followed him on the air (video) and outlined his five-point program to address the season-long rise in head injuries. NHL.com says Bettman presented these points to the GM’s at the start of the meeting.

This plan has the appearance of a rapid response to recent events, events which we discussed in an earlier post Monday, but as Bettman himself said, some of these steps have been in the works for a while.
Read More…

As NHL players wonder why Zdeno Chara was allowed to escape suspension for his hit on Max Pacioretty, some people see arena safety as a main issue this incident. (Jean-Yves Ahern/Icon SMI)

By Stu Hackel

Thursday’s Canucks-Sharks game, a hugely entertaining overtime match won 5-4 by Vancouver, grew in drama as it went along. The teams each scored a power play goal in the last two minutes of regulation before Alex Burrows got the winner after his team killed off Ryan Kesler’s penalty. The game was so good that even the losers liked it. The Sharks’ Joe Thornton, whose team fought back from an early two-goal and two one-goal deficits to force OT, said (video) “The atmosphere was great, both teams played a really good game and it was an exciting game to be a part of.”

The contest provided some needed relief from the antagonism engendered by Zdeno Chara’s hit on Max Pacioretty. The debate on the hit and the lack of punishment for it remains the biggest story in Canada and is Number One with a bullet at the top of hockey’s chat charts. It was guaranteed to stay that way when Thornton and some other players had their say about that incident prior to the game.

Read More…

It took Trevor Gillies all of one minute and 51 seconds after returning from a nine-game suspension to get himself tossed for this crushing hit on Minnesota’s Cal Clutterbuck. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

The research into degenerative brain disease in hockey players caused by repeated blows to the head, as reported today in The New York Times, underscores that while the NHL has done much to reduce head shots that cause concussions, it needs to do a better job implementing some of the steps it has taken.
Read More…

The late Bob Probert (left) was found to have developed a degenerative brain condition associated with hits to the head, but the role his frequent fighting played in it is still unclear to researchers. (AP Photos)

By Stu Hackel

The finding reported in the The New York Times that Bob Probert had the degenerative brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) raises highly important challenges for the NHL and its players. Some are new challenges, some are not, but they cannot be ignored and they could impact the character of the sport going forward.
Read More…

Former Flyer John LeClair was the very – but not so pretty — picture of a hockey player’s legendary ability to take a licking and keep on playing in the relentless pursuit of victory. (Lou Capozzola/Sports Illustrated)

By Stu Hackel

Hockey without toughness? Fahgeddaboudit. It’s a central component of the sport, as integral as sticks and pucks, and it’s ingrained in the game’s culture. Players are almost required to display courage when facing adversity. Playing hurt is considered a sign of one’s character, willingness to compete, and desire to give everything in the pursuit of victory. It’s still a man’s game and if you’re too hurt to play — like the Canadiens’ James Wisniewski, who took a shot in the face in Edmonton last night — you ought to look something like he did. (More photos of the toll taken on players can be seen in this SI.com gallery entitled The Faces of Battle.)

Toughness is a huge part of what makes hockey players special, and the culture around the game permits us even to make light of injuries. The photo of Wisniewski linked above has a comment underneath that reads, “Nice hockey scratch Wiz.” Injuries inevitably invite jokes, and minimizing danger with humor reflects the fearlessness that hockey players display, perhaps better than any other athletes. Playing with broken bones is not unheard of. A few stitches, a busted nose, a stick in the teeth? Nothing to it. Patch ‘em up, get ‘em back out there quickly.

But when it comes to concussions, that essential aspect of the game’s make-up is now being reconsidered.
Read More…