Liong's take on concussions . . .

Concussions are unlike any other type of injury.
As a young boy growing up, I was extremely ignorant of all types of injuries. I thought, well, if I fell, I'd just get back up and over time whatever I hurt was going to heal.
I was right, for the most part.
I was born with cerebral palsy, which affects my walking. As a result, I need a walker or some type of support. Because of that, I've had a lot of situations where I have fallen or tripped and been injured.
I've had my fair share of concussions, too. There was one incident that I remember like it happened yesterday. I was in Grade 2 or 3, and I was playing outside with a friend during lunch hour. It all was in good fun until my wheels got caught on the curb, which put the walker on an angle. At the time, I wasn't physically strong enough to get my walker on even ground, and it went straight backward.
I heard “KONCK“ as my head hit concrete at full force.
“Are you OK?” my friend asked, in obvious concern.
“I'm fine,” I uttered.
But I clearly wasn't. When I tried to get up, I couldn't.
I'd try again, and again, but I just ended up laying on the ground every time. I didn't want attention put on me while in that situation, but it ended up happening anyway. All the parents, students and teachers came running to see what was wrong. I was just laying on the ground like a starfish. A mother of one of the kids got on her knees and spoke extremely close to my face.
“Honey, you will be fine,” she said.
Then she screamed for someone to call 9-1-1 and request an ambulance.
I didn't really know what was going on, so I didn't respond to anything she said. Thank goodness she didn't have bad breath; she was inches away from my face and it could have looked like she was making out with me. Anyway, within minutes an ambulance showed up, by which point I was really scared.
It was my first time experiencing the big emergency truck.
“What's happening?” I said to my teacher as they loaded me into the ambulance. “What's going on?” I had no idea where I was going.
“These people are just taking you somewhere to make sure you’re OK,” my support worker said. He rode to Children's Hospital with me.
When I got there, they did a bunch of tests on me, and a few hours later my mom showed up and began asking me how I ended up in the hospital.
One of the translators jumped in and explained what had happened and what the doctor was saying to her. The doctor said I was doing fine and I was free to head home. The wooziness was gone.
I really didn't know what concussions were, until I got in my early teenage years where I started hearing about the issue during NHL broadcasts. But, even then, I still didn't understand the impact of a head injury.
Norm Weseen, one of my close friends, reads this blog every day for hockey news. In the summer of 2011, Gregg Drinnan, the founder of Taking Note, posted that there was going to be a conference focusing on head injuries at the University of British Columbia's Brain Research Centre on Sept. 21 and provided a link to the registration information.
You may recall that awareness on concussions had started to heat up because Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby, arguably the best player in the NHL, had suffered a concussion in the 2010-11 season from blindside hits to the head.
With that in mind, Weseen, a great man who is always willing to help people, saw the post and decided to call me right away.
“Hey, bozo,” he said, jokingly. “Gregg says there's a conference at UBC on concussions. You interested?”
“Yeah,” I replied, knowing what had happened with Crosby.
“OK, I'll figure out how to register and I'll pick you up at 7.”
“OK,” I said.
Now it was Sept. 21 and we were close to getting there. But UBC has so many building that it took us 20 minutes to find the right one, and we arrived just in time.
As I entered the conference room, there was five minutes until the opening remarks and there weren’t any media people in attendance.
I thought to myself that “maybe they're just running late.”
As the time came to start the conference and the security people came to shut the doors, there still were no reporters there. I was the only person there that does media. The rest were students. I was baffled at the fact that there was no media. Don't they want to cover something that has not only a huge impact on hockey, but sports altogether? Shocking.
Anyway, most of the speakers’ presentations went so fast that I didn't understand 90 per cent of each one. But when I attend coaching clinic, they always say that it's not about taking in all the presentations, it's about learning one item at a time. So taking in 10 per cent of each presentation was pretty good in my books.
But there was one presentation that I paid more attention to than the others. It was by Dr. Ann McKee of Boston College and she talked about the major consequences after suffering a head injury.
“What the hell?” I said to Weseen, who was seated beside me. “There's consequences?”
“I don't know,” he replied, with a laugh. “Just shut up and listen.”
During McKee's presentation, she mentioned two names that really got my attention. One being Crosby, and the other being Rob Van Dam, a WWE wrestler. Aside from watching hockey, I've been watching professional wrestling on a weekly basis since I was two years of age. McKee explained that because of Van Dam's high-flying style, he had suffered a number of concussions. This proved to me that wrestling wasn't fake, but that the outcomes are scripted in order to create storylines.
Then she showed the people in attendance something I had never before seen. She displayed pictures of brains that had suffered concussion and the sort of damage it does. When athletes suffer a concussion, it puts a brown spot on the brain, and it stays forever. The ones with the brown spots are more prone to another concussion, which will make the brown spot darker and perhaps even larger. If it gets bad enough, athletes having incurred a number of concussions may behave abnormally.
So that begs the question: Why are shots to the head allowed in hockey?
In terms of wrestling, I get it, it's simulated fighting. But why are shots to the head allowed in a game that, in order to obtain victory, you have to score more goals than the other team? You don't score goals with dirty hits; you do it by putting the puck in the net. What really bugs me is a pre-planned fight during a hockey game. Fine, if two players are fighting out of anger, let them be. Hockey is a game with high emotion.
But if the fight has no reason behind it, then why risk getting a head injury that could have affects later on in life? It makes no sense.
After attending the conference, I get all fired up when I hear about concussions, especially because of my own experience. Those head injuries will stay with me forever, even if a doctor tells me I'm fine.
It's not just another concussion.
Take action.

(Dickson Liong is Taking Note’s Vancouver correspondent.)

1. Dr. Ann McKee doesn't particularly like it, but she has become the pubic face of the ongoing research into brain injuries in sports.
Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News takes an intriguing look right here at Dr. McKee, who admits that, through it all, she remains a fan of the Green Bay Packers.
"You live in conflict," McKee said. "I have a little easier time watching the NFL than college or high school. I used to go to the high school games and now I have trouble with it. The NFL players get big rewards from it. I feel at least the NFL has made big changes to help their safety. And they're adults -- they can make good decisions."
McKee also points out that her work has nothing to do with trying to destroy football or any other sport.
"This isn't about football, this is about people," McKee told Solomon. "This is a story about people who played sports and had a really bad outcome. I don't ever think in my head 'bad football.' It's more, 'Listen to what's happening and let's try to change this.' "
She also told Solomon: "I love sports, OK? But I think we really need to take it on ourselves to not be so crazy about sports, not to risk someone's future just because we think they might be the next star."
She is correct.

2. The fallout from Jumbogate continued Friday.
Jason Botchford of the Vancouver Province, who posted a lewd comment made by Thornton following a game-day skate on Thursday, doesn’t seem to be getting much support, unless it's from friends and co-workers.
Kevin Allen of USA Today said on Sportsnet that he had spoken with "many" sports reporters and there wasn't much, if any, support for Botchford's decision. "It's almost universal that no one would have reported it," Allen said.
Allen, a highly respected hockey writer who will be presented with the Lester Patrick Award for outstanding service to hockey in the United States on Dec. 2, admitted that he was "just  stunned" by Botchford's decision.
"That happens all the time . . . guys make comments, they interject their thoughts in the middle of interviews, it's usually humour-based," Allen said. "We all hear it. We all ignore it. It's kind of an implied off the record."
Allen said he wouldn't even have considered using the comment, adding that had he chosen to he would have been fired within 20 minutes.
"To me," Allen added, "the reporter, I would say, went rogue. He went outside of what I would say is acceptable practice."
A number of years ago I was the president of the Western Major Junior Hockey Writers Association and we were working to get the WHL to allow us access to dressing rooms. 0ne day, I met  with media relations, public relations and marketing officials in a Vancouver hotel, and attempted to state our case as to why newspaper reporters needed that access.
At the end of the day, the team reps were fearful of exactly what happened with Botchford and Thornton, and the teams were even more concerned because reporters who cover major junior hockey are dealing mostly with teenagers. Those teenagers, the school of thought was, might easily say something without realizing the consequences.
In the end, the issue of dressing room access was left up to individual teams, although the WHL does have rules about player availability. In Kamloops, for example, I haven't set foot in the Blazers dressing room in a number of years.
And now there are rumblings that NHL players may ask for time limits when reporters are on their turf.
Aaron Ward, a former NHLer who now is a studio analyst with TSN, posted three tweets on Friday morning. Here they are, having been combined:
"Bottom line on SJ lockeroom quote. Having been on both sides, this is a media/player relationship-killer. Sets it back now bc players could believe they have lost established comfort level with media on what is in fact NEWS. Told by players they may ask to put reporters back on the clock and when availability is up, they will be asked to leave. Not good for a game we are all still trying to grow."
And then there is Jack Todd, a columnist whose work appears in the Montreal Gazette. Todd tweeted: "Thanks to the moron who made Joe Thornton’s comments public, we may never get a good quote out of a hockey locker room again."

3. Roy MacGregor of The Globe and Mail writes that fighting in hockey has to go. As he points out, the designated fighters aren't needed to police a game that already has police, as in on-ice officials, to do just that. That column is right here.

4. Ted Clarke of the Prince George Citizen has an interesting story right here that explores the link between Major League Baseball's playoffs and the 2009 World Baseball Challenge, the terrific baseball tournament whose home is in Prince George. This is neat stuff.

5. Sheldon Kennedy, who continues to do such terrific work, took his message about child abuse and how to deal with it to Penn State this week. There is more right here.

6. Donald E. Miller Jr. is a dead man. How does he know that? A judge told him so. Yes, Miller was in front of a judge this week. That judge told Miller that, as far as the law is concerned, he is deceased. Check out the story right here.




F Devin Oakes, who was released by the Kamloops Blazers earlier this week, has joined the BCHL's Merritt Centennials. Oakes, 18, is from Prince Rupert, B.C. He was pointless in two games with the Blazers this season. . . .
D Jesse Forsberg, who was dealt by the Seattle Thunderbirds to Moose Jaw this week, didn't play for the Warriors in Brandon on Friday night. According to James Gallo of the Warriors, Forsberg has a hip-pointer. . . . Prior to that game in Brandon, Andy Neal of Shaw TV tweeted: "Last Friday's W for Brandon was Kelly McCrimmon's 334th career victory behind the bench, moves past Willie Desjardins for 18th most all-time." . . . The Wheat Kings won 3-2 in a shootout last night. . . . Brandon D Ryan Pulock was back after a one-game injury-related absence. . . . Moose Jaw F Todd Fiddler was a healthy scratch. . . . The host Kelowna Rockets and Seattle Thunderbirds went to OT for the seventh time in the last 12 meetings between the teams last night. Seattle won this one, 4-3. . . .
F Boston Leier is loving life in Regina. He scored three times last night — it was the 20-year-old's first WHL hat trick — as the Pats dropped the Vancouver Giants 5-4 in OT. Leier, who was acquired from the Medicine Hat Tigers on Oct. 2, has five goals and an assist in his last two games. . . . The Giants have lost seven in a row. According to Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post, the Giants are without five injured forwards. . . .
The Red Deer Rebels may have lost F Vukie Mpofu to injury in the third period of a 4-3 OT victory over the visiting Prince Albert Raiders last night. According to Red Deer Advocate sports editor Greg Meachem, Mpofu left "after being taken into the boards by the Raiders’ Mackenze Stewart, and didn’t return." Stewart was hit with a boarding major and game misconduct and may be looking at a suspension.

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THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Mike Card (Kelowna, 2002-06) signed a one-year contract with Tingsryd (Sweden, Allsvenskan). He had four goals and 18 assists in 46 games with Alleghe (Italy, Serie A) last season. Card is scheduled to arrive in Tingsryd on Sunday and is expected to play in Tingsryd's exhibition game on Wednesday against Troja/Ljungby.
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The Medicine Hat Tigers shuffled the deck a bit on Friday, with head coach Shaun Clouston also assuming the general manager’s duties and former GM Brad McEwen dropping down to assistant GM.
McEwen had been the Tigers’ GM since July 16, 2010. He took over from Willie Desjardins, who had been the GM and head coach before moving to the NHL’s Dallas Stars as associate coach. Desjardins now is head coach of the AHL’s Texas Stars.
Before moving up to GM, McEwen had been the Tigers’ director of scouting for three years.
McEwen, 51, and his family live at Round Lake, in Saskatchewan’s Qu’Appelle Valley. Their home suffered flood damage in the spring of 2011 and I am told that it bothered McEwen that he had to leave for training camp before everything was looked after. That, combined with having children in school, helped McEwen decide that he wasn’t going to relocate to Medicine Hat and that perhaps a change was needed.
He also loves scouting more than anything else.
“Honestly, that is what I enjoy doing,” McEwen told Darren Steinke of the Medicine Hat News. “For me, I knew what I had to do.
“Personally and family-wise, you go and streamline your job (and) you have a little more ability and a little more flexibility. It works much better for me personally and my family.
“I think it is going to be real good.”
Clouston, 44, is preparing for his 10th season with the Tigers. An assistant coach under Desjardins, Clouston took over as head coach upon Desjardins’ departure.
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Well, that takes care of that!
The Michigan Daily has published a clarification involving its story of June 28 in which it claimed that D Jacob Trouba wouldn’t play for the U of Michigan Wolverines, choosing instead to join the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers. The OHL team, according to a Daily source, had offered Trouba $200,000 to change his mind.
The Rangers later filed a lawsuit against the paper and writer Matt Slovin.
With the clarification and the Daily’s having removed the original story from its website, the Rangers had dropped their lawsuit.
That clarification is right here.
Sunaya Sapurji of Yahoo! Sports has more on that story right here. Her story includes news that the Rangers continue to proceed with part of their lawsuit. That would be the part against the Daily’s source, named in the statement of claim as John Doe.
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If you haven’t already, visit Small Thoughts at Large over there on the right. Alan Caldwell has put up his annual mileage chart that shows how far each of the WHL teams will travel this season.
He also has a team-by-team look at the 20-year-old situations across the league.
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The Prince George Cougars have released F Greg Fraser, 20, who was a 15th-round pick in the 2007 bantam draft. From Nanaimo, B.C., Fraser played 252 regular-season games with the Cougars, picking up 73 points, including 46 goals. . . . Fraser has decided to get on with his education. . . . His departure leaves the Cougars with four 20s on their roster — D Dallas Ehrhardt, F Campbell Elynuik, D Dan Gibb and F Brock Hirsche. . . . Meanwhile, F Brad Morrison, the seventh overall selection in the 2012 bantam draft, has moved back to Prince George and is expected to play for the major midget Cariboo Cougars this season. Morrison played last season with the Okanagan Hockey Academy in Penticton, putting up 141 points, including 83 goals.
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D Dylan Kuczek, 18, has told the Brandon Wheat Kings that he won’t be returning. Kuczek, from Winnipeg, was a second-round pick in the 2009 bantam draft. He had two points and 27 penalty minutes in 33 games before a shoulder injury ended his season . . . . What happened? . . . “He just wanted to move on and do other things,” Brandon owner/GM Kelly McCrimmon told Rob Henderson of the Brandon Sun. “He had a tough time with injuries and just decided that he wanted to pursue other interests.”
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The Lethbridge Hurricanes are down to four 20-year-olds with the news that D Tyler Kizuik won’t be returning; instead, he is off to the U of Lethbridge where he will play for the Pronghorns. Kizuik was acquired by the Hurricanes early in 2010-11 from the Saskatoon Blades. He also played with the Prince George Cougars. Last season, he had four goals and 43 penalty minutes in 58 games with the Hurricanes. . . . Lethbridge’s roster now features F Nick Buonassisi, F Graham Hood, D Daniel Johnston and G Ty Rimmer as the 20s.
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Pour yourself a cup of coffee and make sure there’s more at hand. Because right here is today’s good read and it’s terrific.
Jane Leavy, who is a terrific writer, profiles Dr. Ann McKee, the woman who would save football. This piece is from grantland.com and it is amazing.
Leavy, by the way, is the author of two great baseball books — Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy and The Last Boy, Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood. If you haven’t already read them, you should.

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The story involving hockey, concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has taken another turn.
Researchers in Boston have revealed that the brain of Richard Martin, who was a member of the famed French Connection with the Buffalo Sabres, contained CTE.
Martin, who died of a heart attack in March at the age of 59, played 11 NHL seasons, mostly without a helmet. He is the third former NHLer — but the first who wasn’t a fighter — whose brain has been found to have had CTE. The other two were Reggie Fleming and Bob Probert.
Robert Stern, a professor of neurology and neurosurgery at Boston University and co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at the university’s school of medicine, told James Christie of The Globe and Mail that Martin’s “CTE was definitely there and likely caused by repetitive blows to the head, received in hockey over the years.”
It is interesting that Martin, despite the presence of CTE, hadn’t shown any of the symptoms of the chronic brain disease that so many other diagnosed athletes had shown. That only goes to show how this research really is in its infancy and how much researchers continue to learn about the brain.
Dr. Ann McKee, who has done so much work in this area, examined Martin’s brain.
“Someone who wasn’t a fighter, by playing the game of hockey for the number of years that (Martin) did . . . it put him at risk for developing this disease,” Stern told Christie.
“We can speculate symptoms would have gotten worse. The message is that we need to take brain trauma in hockey and in all sports much more seriously than we have before.”
Researchers also are examining the brain of Derek Boogaard, who died earlier this summer. Results of that examination have yet to be released.
Christie’s complete story is right here.
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“The WHL's decision to modify its injury report is hardly a life-or death issue,” writes Greg Harder in the Regina Leader-Post. “Perhaps no one outside the media even noticed. However, it does point to a larger issue of credibility, raising legitimate questions about what the WHL is trying to hide.”
Harder’s complete column is right here.
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Things weren’t very pretty in Swift Current on Wednesday as the Broncos held their annual general meeting.
According to a team-issued news release: “The Broncos announced a financial loss of $197,226. The loss on the Hockey Operations side was $882,587, but additional revenues in Corporate Sponsorship, Corporate Suites and Fundraising closed the gap partially.”
A year ago, the Broncos announced a loss of $58,927 for 2009-10.
Jordan Wall, the Broncos’ director of business operations, told Steven Mah of the Southwest Booster after Wednesday night’s meeting: “It is very startling. I mean, it is not completely unexpected. We understood there were certain factors that led to it and we understood that we were probably going down that road this season, especially with a rough second half. But it is not a number you want to see and it is very scary for the long-term viability of the franchise.”
Think about the last part of that quote for a moment . . . “It is very scary for the long-term viability of the franchise.”
And thinks don’t look any better for this season, not with season-ticket sales somewhere south of 1,500. The Broncos have played two home games this season, drawing 2,023 fans to their home-opener (a 4-2 loss to the Regina Pats) and 1,812 (a 6-5 loss to the Brandon Wheat Kings).
Mah reported: “Ticket sales, per game attendance, and season-ticket sales all decreased during (2010-11). Per game attendance dropped for the second straight season, from 2,197 to 2,135.”
Mah’s complete story is right here.
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JUST NOTES: The host Saskatoon Blades won the Brodsky Bowl on Wednesday night, beating the visiting Prince George Cougars, 6-1. Jack Brodsky is the governor and president of the Blades; his brother Rick owns the Cougars. . . . The Cougars had six 16-year-old players, five of them forwards, in their lineup. . . . F Brett Connolly, who played the last three seasons with the Prince George Cougars, will open the season with the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning. In the preseason, Connolly, the sixth overall pick in the 2010 NHL draft, skated on a line with NHL stars Steven Stamkos and Marty St. Louis. When the Lightning opens against the host Carolina Hurricanes on Friday, Connolly likely will be on the third line, alongside Dominic Moore and Ryan Shannon. . . .
The Medicine Hat Tigers are the first Central Division team to visit the Victoria Royals. They’ll play there tonight and Friday. Before leaving Medicine Hat, the Tigers assigned G Dawson MacAuley, 17, to the midget AAA Prince Albert Mintos and D Ryan Aasman to the AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints. MacAuley’s departure leaves Kenny Cameron, 18, to back up starter Tyler Bunz. Aasman, who from Medicine Hat, was selected by the Prince Albert Raiders with the eighth overall pick in the 2007 bantam draft. . . . G Luke Siemens, acquired Tuesday from the Everett Silvertips, stopped 19 shots on Wednesday night to help the host Moose Jaw Warriors to their fourth straight victory, a 3-2 triumph over the Lethbridge Hurricanes. . . . D Collin Bowman, 20, has returned to the Warriors from the camp of the AHL’s Connecticut Whale. He is expected to be in the Warriors’ lineup Friday against the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings. . . .
In Edmonton, the Reinhart brothers staged something of a family reunion, although Griffin, a defenceman with the Oil Kings, wasn’t around for the finish against the Kootenay Ice. He took a kneeing major and game misconduct in the third period, so missed the end of what was a 2-1 shootout victory for the Oil Kings. . . . Kootenay F Brandon Hurley, who took the knee from Reinhart, is believed to have suffered a charleyhorse. . . . The Ice’s roster includes F Max Reinhart and F Sam Reinhart, both of whom came up empty in the shootout. All three are sons of former NHL D Paul Reinhart. . . .
In Vancouver, newly acquired G Adam Morrison stopped 25 shots through OT as the Giants scored a 3-2 shootout victory over the Spokane Chiefs. Vancouver F James Henry scored the only goal of the shootout to make a winner out of Morrison, who was acquired Tuesday in a four-player deal with the Saskatoon Blades. F Levi Bews, who also came to Vancouver in that deal, scored the Giants’ first goal. . . . The Red Deer Rebels have traded D Brad Deagle, 19, to the Seattle Thunderbirds for a conditional seventh round pick in the 2013 bantam draft. A third-round pick in the 2007 bantam draft, Deagle had 12 points, all of them assists, in 62 games last season. Deagle’s departure leaves the Rebels with nine defencemen still on their roster. . . .
The host Kelowna Rockets ran their winning streak to nine games with a 4-3 victory over the Tri-City Americans. The Rockets, who went 6-0 in the exhbition season, have won their first three regular-season games. They will meet again Friday, this time in Kennewick, Wash., at the Toyota Center. . . . Pat Siedlecki, the radio voice of the Lethbridge Hurricanes, reported on his blog yesterday that F Austin Fyten, 20, is scheduled to have knee surgery later this month and likely won’t play again for six months. Fyten was injured on his final shift of an exhibition game in Taber, Alta.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
Taking Note on Twitter

THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Juraj Gracik (Tri-City, 2004-06) signed a one-year contract with the Milton Keynes Lightning (England, Premier). He had 16 goals and 18 assists in 36 games for Topolcany (Slovakia, 1.Liga) last season. The English Premier League opens its regular season on Sept. 24.
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On Oct. 28, 2009, Dr. Ann McKee testified before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on NFL players and head injuries.
Dr. McKee is a neuropathologist with Boston University’s Centre for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy. Her statement on Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is riveting.
It also is available, via video, right here.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoKkpLL10xw
Among other things, Dr. McKee points out that without head trauma there is no CTE. Period.
She also testified about the brain of an 18-year-old football player that showed spots of extreme damage.
I dare you to watch this and then make a responsible case for allowing fighting in hockey, especially where teenagers are involved.
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The Brain Research Centre is holding a major event — Not Just A Concussion, a Research Day on Traumatic Brain Injury — In Vancouver on Sept. 24.
Dr. Ann McKee will be the keynote speaker. There is no charge for registration.
This will be held in the Life Sciences Centre (Lecture Theatre No. 3) at UBC, running from 8 a.m. through 3 p.m. (The address is 2350 Health Sciences Mall, UBC Campus; entry via the west doors only.)
A news release on the event notes:
“Sidney Crosby’s hockey career hangs in the balance as he strives to make a come back from a pair of concussions. Amid speculation and headshaking, he is a living symbol of the tremendous personal costs of traumatic brain injury.
“Loss of livelihood. Poor memory and concentration. Inability to problem solve. Outbursts of rage. Between contact sports and explosive devices common in modern warfare alone, millions of people face, or will encounter, these challenges, born of brain damage caused by blows to the head.
“Join us for a fascinating immersion in recent findings on TBI, potential treatment strategies, and prevention.
“Highlights include keynote speaker Ann McKee, a neuropathologist from Boston University who will speak on the major consequences of mild TBI — a degenerative condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), as well as presentations by BRC-affiliated faculty and Darren Richards, an international expert on injury biomechanics.
“Presentations will cover a range of topics, including basic science pointing to therapies in spinal cord injury and TBI, connections between TBI and dementia, and new imaging techniques that reveal the full extent of brain damage in concussion.
“Admission to our Research Day on Traumatic Brain Injury is free, but you must register in order to attend. Sign up today!”
In order to register, visit right here.
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Willy Panov of the Halifax Chronicle-Herald has covered the QMJHL for a number of years.
On Friday, he tweeted:
“Gilles Courteau would ban fighting in the Q right now if it were only up to him. Progressive thinking.”
Gilles Courteau is the comissioner of the QMJHL.
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Veteran NHLer Shane Doan, the captain of the Phoenix Coyotes, says: “If you want to be safe, then don’t play.”
In a story written by Nicholas J. Cotsonika of Yahoo! Sports, Doan continues:
“Realistically, if you don’t want to get hit and you don’t want to get hurt, then don’t play. If you go out on the ice, you’re going to get hit. If you want to play shinny, then go play shinny. It’s not the same.
“And that’s not trying to be cavalier or trying to be light about the subject, because nobody wants anybody to get hurt. But the game isn’t supposed to be safe. It’s supposed to be an intense, emotional game.”
The complete story is right here.
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The Prince George Cougars have signed D Michael Mylchreest, 16, to a WHL contract. The 6-foot-2, 188-pound Mylchreest is from Gilroy, Calif. He played midget hockey last season with the San Jose Jr. Sharks.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
Taking Note on Twitter

What if Sid the Kid can't play anymore?

The NHL playoffs are well into Round 2 and, really, the story of the little green men isn’t the biggest story.
No. The biggest story of these playoffs, perhaps of any playoff, occurred Friday. It just didn’t get the attention that a major story deserves. After all, there were games to be played that night and on the weekend.
It was on Friday when Sidney Crosby, who had been working to get back in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ lineup since suffering a concussion in early January, revealed that he had suffered a setback the previous week. It forced him, he said, to take a step back.
On the blog of Globe and Mail hockey writer James Mirtle, Crosby is quoted as having said:
“It’s more frustrating. My expectation probably wasn’t that I’d play (during these playoffs), but I was just trying to make sure that if there was any chance that it was possible to come back that I was ready and that I’d done everything I could to be ready. It’s frustrating, disappointing. But I can’t really control any of that.
“All I can control is what I was doing off the ice in trying to rehab and all that stuff. Unfortunately it didn’t work out.”
And just like that — “Unfortunately it didn’t work out” — the greatest player in today’s hockey world stepped back into the shadows. His Penguins have been eliminated from the playoffs so the glare of the spotlight won’t find him perhaps until late August.
By now you’ve seen the hits Crosby’s noggin absorbed. First, on Jan. 1, he took a blindside hit from Dave Steckel of the Washington Capitals. Then, four days later, defenceman Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning hit Crosby, whose head appeared to strike the glass.
Neither one of the hits was particularly vicious. In fact, the Penguins say he felt fine after the first check and that it wasn’t until after the second one that Crosby began to feel that something wasn’t right. Crosby hasn’t played since the Hedman hit, but it isn’t known if either of the hits caused a concussion, or if it was a combination. And such is the mystery of brain injuries — every brain is different and, as such, there always are a lot of unanswered questions in terms of cause, effect and healing time.
When he left the game, Crosby had 66 points, including 32 goals, in 41 games. Without the injury, you can forget the Hart Trophy discussion because it belonged to him.
He started out day-to-day. Now, however, he hasn’t played in four months. And, really, who is to say his career won’t feel a long-term impact?
In fact, what if Sid the Kid doesn’t play again?
If Crosby doesn’t feel well enough to start next season, and that is five months away, might that be the impetus to put concussion awareness over the top?
Because it has become as evident as the nose on your face that the time has come for action, particularly in leagues and organizations that deal with young people. That action has to deal with preventing concussions, as opposed to treating them. The medical evidence is mounting that one concussion is one too many.
If you missed it, researchers said Monday that the brain of former NFL player Dave Duerson showed damage. The evidence was “indisputable,“ said  Dr. Ann McKee, an expert in the field of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy).
Duerson, a former NFL defensive back, committed suicide on Feb. 17. After preparing a note asking that his brain go to the NFL “brain bank,” he shot himself in the chest. Duerson, who retired in 1993, was just 50 years of age.
“Dave Duerson had classic pathology of CTE and no evidence of any other disease,” McKee said, “and he has severe involvement of all the (brain) structures that affect things like judgment, inhibition, impulse control, mood and memory.”
In the U.S., most of the focus on concussions is falling on football, and rightfully so.
In an op-ed piece in USA TODAY last week, Katherine Chretien, an associate professor of medicine at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., wrote that “football will always be engrained in the fabric of our country, but can we make it a sport that limits long-term brain damage of its players? The brains of our children and the future love of the game are depending on it.”
Earlier, she had pointed out that CTE “might not be limited to professional level play. It probably starts much earlier. The question is when? At what age?”
And those are the $64,000 questions when it comes to young people and sports. Research has shown that while repetitive collisions in practices and during games may not result in concussions there still may be damage done. In many instances, rest will help the brain heal; what isn’t known is at what point the damage becomes permanent.
Today, the only way to test for CTE is for researchers to examine a brain, meaning someone has to have died. The key, then, is to work to prevent concussions.
The CFL will hold a news conference today and the topic of conversation is expected to be concussion awareness. You just know that this subject is on the mind of every football player in North America.
Yesterday, on TSN radio, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, according to a tweet from TSN’s Darren Dreger, acknowledged “concern over head hits and concussion issues in the NHL. Says the sport in general needs to do more.”
He is correct. But while it is important that hockey at all levels do more in terms of concussion treatment, it is imperative that it also work to prevent concussions.
After all, the concussion that doesn’t happen doesn’t need treatment, nor does it result in today’s athlete slurring his or her words later in life.

(Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, gdrinnan.blogspot.com and twitter.com/gdrinnan.)