Concussions serious issue in NHL

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As of Monday morning there were 25 players with either concussions or symptoms of concussions listed on the NHL injury report.

It includes some of the best players in the game: Sidney Crosby, Chris Pronger, Claude Giroux, Milan Michalek, Kris Letang, Mike Richards and Jeff Skinner.

Brent Seabrook wasn’t on the list as having a concussion, but the Blackhawks defenseman is believed to have suffered some sort of head injury when he was rammed into the boards from behind by Calgary’s Rene Bourque on Sunday.

Some have called the concussion problem in the NHL an epidemic.

Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t, but player safety certainly is the biggest problem facing the league and Commissioner Gary Bettman, particularly when some of the best players in the sport are going down left and right.

“We know that concussions are a serious issue, and we’re doing our best to be very proactive in terms of diagnosis and treatment,” Bettman said on his radio show last Thursday. “We’re not minimizing it, and I’m not disputing it.”

The news last week that Pronger would miss the rest of the season with severe concussion symptoms rocked the NHL.

Pronger is one of the biggest and toughest players in the game, but his agent, Pat Morris, told The Hockey News that the veteran was “stumbling around, regularly forgetting simple things and constantly feeling severe nausea.”

Crosby, the world’s best player, has been sidelined for most of the past year with concussion symptoms and will miss another game Tuesday night against the Hawks at Consol Energy Center.

Crosby has played in only eight games since Jan. 5 of last season. He returned from the concussion he suffered last January on Nov. 21 only to collide with teammate Chris Kunitz on Dec. 5 and go out of the lineup again with headaches.

“It’s best to be cautious with him right now in this situation,” Penguins general manager Ray Shero told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “The future is important. We have to make sure we’re very careful with him.”

When a player like Crosby is out with a head injury, Hawks coach Joel Quenneville believes the entire industry suffers.

“He’s great for our game, a special player who does a lot of things,” Quenneville said. “Hopefully he’s going to be back playing because he’s good in a lot of ways for our game.”

Preventing concussions is easier said than done. While the NHL has implemented new rules and levels of suspensions for head shots and hits from behind, concussions still are happening an an alarming rate.

The game is so fast and played at such a high speed by players who are bigger and stronger than years ago when concussions either weren’t happening as frequently or simply went undiagnosed.

“Nobody knew how dangerous they were. If you didn’t play right away they thought you weren’t tough enough in this league,” Anaheim’s 41-year-old Teemu Selanne said last week while in Chicago to play the Hawks.

“In my opinion there are three parts to it,” said Hawks center Jamal Mayers, a 13-year NHL veteran. “Doctors and trainers are now more cognizant when you do have a mild concussion or a concussion, so the diagnosis is much better. Because of that, they’re a little more apprehensive to let you go back and play.

“The second part is with the rule changes since the lockout with no obstruction. I think the numbers would say more defensemen are sustaining concussions because you can’t hold up forecheckers. I think they need to do something where you can kind of get in a guy’s way.

“The third part is part of the responsibility is on the person getting hit, turning your back at the wrong time,” Mayers said. “I don’t know why guys are doing that. It never used to happen. And there is a lack of respect when you go to hit somebody. Guys are bigger and stronger and we’re moving faster out there.”

While nobody has the definitive answer for preventing concussions, it’s an issue that is not going away, one that has the players thinking about it more than ever with careers on the line.

“You always have it in the back of your head and you always have it sitting there,” said Hawks center Dave Bolland, who missed a month of last season with a concussion, calling it one of the worst things he has ever been through.

“You never know going into a game when it could pop (up) and you could have another concussion. It does get scary.

“A lot of guys who’ve had them before, I think, do have it in the back of their head and they do see it. So many of these are going around, it’s almost like a domino effect of guys getting them. It’s tough to see.”

Hawks forward Patrick Sharp said there is no escaping the topic of concussions.

“Every time you turn on the TV you see another one,” Sharp said. “I wish I had the answer. The game is so fast now with so many big bodies flying around that you’re bound to have concussions.

“I’ve played hockey all my life and have been fortunate to escape the big hits, but it’s scary to see the effects.”

•Follow Tim’s Hawks reports via Twitter @TimSassone and check out his Between the Circles blog at dailyherald.com.