Time to confront concussions
There was an interesting exchange during Edmonton coach Todd McLellan’s news conference prior to Thursday’s game between the Oilers and the Canadiens.
Jim Matheson, the veteran hockey writer for the Edmonton Journal, inquired about the health of Lauri Korpikoski. The Finn had been blindsided by Minnesota’s Matt Dumba two nights earlier and was listed as questionable for the Montreal game.
McLellan offered little insight into the injury other than to say that Korpikoski is “not feeling well.” He said Korpikoski felt OK after the game, but it was one of the cases where he didn’t feel so hot the next morning. The official word from the team was that he was day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
There was no mention of the C-word.
Concussions have been a problem in the National Hockey League and, with a growing number of former players joining a class-action suit against the league for its alleged disregard of the dangers of concussions, there’s a reluctance to talk about the injury.
In Korpikoski’s case, the Oilers can fall back on the “upper-body” tag because Korpikoski went through the league-mandated protocol regarding concussions. He was hit in the first period and because he suffered a blow to the head, he was sent to the “quiet room” to be examined. He was cleared in time to rejoin the Oilers for the third period of the game.
(Matheson asked former NHLer and Minnesota Wild broadcaster Tom Reid where the quiet room was located in the Xcel Energy Center and Reid said it was located up the street at his sports bar where “there are plenty of empty rooms during the game.”)
The reality is that concussion symptoms aren’t always evident, they vary in severity and they can come and go. Korpikoski didn’t show any symptoms in the moments after the hit, but the evidence suggests that they showed up the next day.
NHL teams tend to downplay the incidence of concussions. The lawsuit might have something to do with it. Teams don’t want to be saddled with the responsibility of going through the protocol. And there are players who feel their careers may be adversely affected if teams feel they are prone to concussions.
There are only seven players identified as suffering from concussions or concussion-like symptoms on the NHL injured reserve list.
Two of them — Marc Savard and Chris Pronger — are so damaged they will never play again. But they are still on NHL rosters because there are teams that need their salary-cap space to reach the NHL floor. Savard is on the Florida Panthers roster, while Pronger is an Arizona Coyote in name only while he doubledips as an employee of the NHL’s player safety department.
The Canadiens have been injury-free this season, but they do have one player on the injuredreserve list. Forward Michaël Bournival suffered a concussion last year and was still having symptoms when training camp opened in September. The Canadiens report that he is suffering from an undisclosed injury.
It’s designations like that which cast a doubt over the extent of the concussion problem in the NHL. Bournival is one of 14 players on the IR with an undisclosed injury, while nine other players are listed as having upper-body injuries.
Not all of these players are suffering from concussions but you don’t have to look far to find cases that cast doubt about the NHL’s reporting of injuries. Simon Després was hit in the head by Tyson Barrie on Oct. 17 and the blow was considered serious enough to warrant a three-game suspension.
Després remains on the IR with an upper-body injury.