Anybody who was even a remote observer to the NHL this season could have told you this was coming.
The concussion-spotter rule was a farce from the beginning, and now the league and the Players’ Association should catch more than just much-deserved criticism, but they could very well have put themselves at the center of another legal crosshairs.
There is a very stark reality that awaits a handful of current NHL players, and former NFL great Nick Buoniconti can tell you all about it. With the NHL already dealing with a very troubling concussion lawsuit, it doesn’t seem like things are getting all that much better.
No case is more worrisome than Sidney Crosby, who has now established himself as one of the Top 10 players in league history but whose future as a functional middle-aged human being is becoming a deep concern.
The history of concussions with Crosby is long and storied — and seemingly has often been initially misdiagnosed. (Wonder if that history is part of the spotters’ information? If they know anything about concussions, they know how much more susceptible a person is to getting numerous concussions and serious brain damage after the first one. So each players’ personal history should be detailed and available. But I’m sure the NHL has thought of that, and the PA has cooperated, right?)
So there were a lot of heart palpitations when Crosby took a cross-check to the back of his head from Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen in Game 3 of their second-round series on May 1. He was diagnosed with a concussion, at the very least the fourth of his NHL career. It was either an awkward or malicious play from Niskanen, but I would very much lean to the former.
Crosby missed Game 4, but then returned for Game 5. In Game 6, he took an awful head-first spill into the boards. He was slow to get to his feet, then slow to get back to the bench — but that’s where he stayed, finishing the game. It’s absolute insanity that he wouldn’t be checked for a concussion at that point, and that onus lies first with the team’s medical staff, no matter if Crosby said he’s fine — which he did. Of course the captain wanted to stay in the game, but that should not have been an option.
Yet even more mind-boggling is that the league’s concussions spotters didn’t have the power to call him off the ice for a test. And it was because the rule that the league and union put in place was so absurdly negligent that it would be shocking, if it wasn’t par for the course.
“Depending on the mechanism of injury, ‘slow to get up’ does not trigger mandatory removal,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told USA Today. “The protocol has to be interpreted literally to mandate a removal. ‘Ice’ as compared to ‘boards’ is in there for a reason. It’s the result of a study on our actual experiences over a number of years. ‘Ice’ has been found to be a predictor of concussions — ‘boards’ has not been.”
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I don’t blame Daly for repeating the rule that was agreed upon by the league and union, but I can’t imagine any possible instance where that sounds reasonable.
First, what “study” shows that boards are less likely to cause a concussion? What kind of possible sample size is there to ever make that case, especially in light of the fact that players have been allowed to lie their way through concussions for decades? And second, you supposedly hired independent concussion experts, and then you limited their power to do their job?
But really, the blame lies equally with the league and the union, both of whom agreed upon a new rule that was a good general idea, but undercut by the fine print. If there were going to be independent spotters, they needed to have total autonomy over the situation, with no pushback coming from the clubs or players.
It was a problem Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist saw coming back in November, when he had to come in cold to replace Antti Raanta in the third period of a 2-2 game after Raanta had been part of a collision, said he was fine, and was yanked by a spotter. That’s the way it was supposed to work, even if Lundqvist was right and there should be a provision to make it different for goaltenders.
“What I have maybe a little issue with is the call is coming from upstairs,” Lundqvist said at the time.
“If that had been in the playoffs or something, and the goalie is fine and someone upstairs is making that call, I’m not sure I’m going to leave the game from getting that call, to be honest with you.”
Crosby felt the same way, and he was never forced to leave the game. The Penguins lost that game, but would win the series in Game 7 and are now on to the Eastern Conference final against the Senators as Crosby chases his third Stanley Cup.
Here’s to hoping that he’ll be able to remember them in 20 years.