Taking Note

Remembering Brad McCrimmon . . .
The Detroit Free Press has a story right here.
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Keith Gave of the Detroit Free Press has a neat Brad McCrimmon memory right here.
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Ryan Pyette of QMI Agency attended Saturday’s funeral service in Farmington, Mich. His story is right here.
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Craig Custance of espn.com also was in Farmington and he remembers the beauty of the Beast right here.
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JUST NOTES: The Red Deer Rebels got their roster down to 31 players by assigning F Dexter Bricker, 16, to the midget AAA Swift Current Legionnaires and F Scott Feser, 16, to the midget AAA Red Deer Optimist Rebels. The Rebels have five players still with NHL teams. . . . The Spokane Chiefs got D Brenden Kitchton back from the camp of the New York Islanders but still are missing F Blake Gal (Calgary), F Darren Kramer (Ottawa) and F Dominik Uher (Pittsburgh). . . . Kelowna G Jordan Cooke, 18, finished his superb exhibition season with a 36-save performance Saturday in Ladner, B.C., as the Rockets got past the Vancouver Giants 2-1 in a shootout. Kelowna head coach Ryan Huska is of the belief that Cooke and veteran Adam Brown, 20, give his club the best 1-2 goaltending punch in the league and it’s hard to argue with him at this point. . . . How did Cooke do in the exhibition season? He went 5-0-0, 2.30, .930.
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Victoria makes its return to the WHL on Friday when the Royals meet the Giants in Vancouver. The teams will play again the next night in Victoria. Cleve Dheensaw has an interesting look at the decision-making process on the part of RG Properties that resulted in the franchise moving from Chilliwack to Victoria. That piece is right here.
Dave Dakers, the president of RG Properties sports and entertainment division, told Dheensaw that the ECHL’s Victoria Salmon Kings, a franchise that was folded to make room for the Royals, had an annual operating budget of $3 million, with the Royals’ running at "15 to 20 per cent less" than that.
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James Christie of The Globe and Mail attended a seminar — Outcomes following Concussion in Hockey — at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto on Saturday.
Dr. Shree Bhalerao told the seminar that concussion patients “don’t want to return to the ice. They have a feeling of panic . . . the elements of an acute stress disorder.
“Eighty-seven per cent have cognitive changes in short-term memory and problems in what have become known as executive functions: problems in sequencing organization, attention and planning.”
Dr. Michael Cusimaro, a neurosurgeon who specializes in brain injury management, said: “There's still an attitude out there that brain injury is like a broken arm. You can't take your brain for granted.”
During the seminar, Christie writes, “Dr. Michael Hutchison, a post-doctoral fellow in injury prevention at St. Mike's, said a videotape study of almost 200 concussions in the NHL from 2007 to 2010 showed most are caused by head shots initiated by shoulder, elbow or gloves. Only about one in 10 were the result of fights, he said.”
Christie’s complete piece is right here.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
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