After missing a single game following yet another concussion, Sidney Crosby went headfirst into the boards and was slow to rise on Monday. What happened next depends on whom you talk to.
The NHL’s questionable concussion protocol is competing with the playoffs as the biggest hockey story going, with the Penguins star being lifted from Game 3, missing Game 4 then surfacing again in Game 5 of the series that’s now knotted at 3. Crosby went down — or, as the NHL would argue, sideways — in the first period of Game 6, banging his head against the boards then hitting the ice. He lay on the ice for a moment before collecting himself and skating off.
After, the period ended, Crosby was evaluated for a concussion — if you believe him.
“Yep. Yeah. Pretty standard,” Crosby told NHL Network, affirming doctors had cleared him to keep playing.
After the Penguins’ 5-2 loss, Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan was asked if Crosby was checked for a concussion.
“No,” Sullivan flatly replied.
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The NHL is not trying to reconcile these two contradictions, instead covering its own behind in saying that Crosby continuing to play was not its fault. After all, couldn’t the league’s concussion spotters — there are a pair assigned by the NHL at each game — have given Crosby the hook as soon as he looked woozy? Not so, the league maintains, because Crosby’s head smashed into the boards, not the ice.
“Depending on the mechanism of injury, ‘slow to get up’ does not trigger mandatory removal,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told USA Today Sports. “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.”
The statement is startling to anyone with even a passing knowledge of concussions, which can arise from any impact and get easier to acquire the more frequent they occur — particularly troubling with Crosby, who’s had a career marred by concussion after concussion.
“Any head contact is a possible mechanism of injury,” Chris Nowinski, co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, told USA Today Sports. “I can’t believe we have to say that in 2017.”
Game 7 will be Wednesday night in Washington, where Crosby, perhaps the best player in the world, is expected to take the ice.