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.)

Thursday . . .

The subject of concussions and their impact on young athletes isn’t going to go away anytime soon.
In fact, it has become a story with legs, as they say.
On Wednesday, USA TODAY ran an editorial that carried this headline:
Who needs concussion laws? 1.2 million young football players
That editorial is right here.
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On Thursday, USA TODAY, on its op-ed page, carried a piece headlined:
Risk a child’s brain for football?
This piece was written by Katherine Chretien, who is an associate professor of medicine at George Washington University. She touches on the questions and the unknowns involving young people and concussions.
Her essay is right here.
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Keep in mind that USA TODAY has a daily circulation of 1.83 million, which translates to something like 6 million daily readers.
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THE COACHING GAME: The QMJHL’s Rouyn-Noranda Huskies have signed GM/head coach Andre Tourigny to a three-year deal. . . .
Rob Vanstone of the Regina Leader-Post takes a look at the Regina Pats’ coaching situation, after the team swept two assistant coaches out the door on Wednesday. That piece is right here. . . .
Might Craig Hartsburg be the next head coach of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild? Hartsburg, the head coach of the Everett Silvertips, says he hasn’t heard from the Wild. Fox Sports has that story right here.
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The Portland Winterhawks will celebrate a milestone Saturday night as they play host to the Spokane Chiefs in Game 5 of the Western Conference final. Prior to the game, the Winterhawks will welcome the one millionth fan in team playoff history. . . . At present, they are 2,108 fans shy of reaching 1,000,000. . . . According to a news release from the Winterhawks, “The lucky fan . . . will receive season tickets to the Winterhawks’ 2011-12 season, a team autographed jersey and will present the three stars at the conclusion of Saturday’s Game 5.” . . . The Winterhawks take a 2-1 lead into Game 4 tonight in Spokane.
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The winner of the Western Conference final will meet the Kootenay Ice in the WHL championship series. The Ice completed a sweep of the Medicine Hat Tigers on Wednesday night. . . . The Ice played that game without F Steele Boomer and F Drew Czerwonka. Boomer suffered a concussion in Game 1 and sat out the last three games. Czerwonka got a stretcher ride off the ice in Game 3 after falling awkwardly into the boards. He was cleared to play in Game 4 but general soreness kept him out. . . . Ice GM Jeff Chynoweth told me Thursday “both Steele and Drew should be ready for Games 1 and 2 and there also is a possibility that Brock Montgomery also will be back. We miss all three of them.” Montgomery has been out with mononucleosis. . . . The WHL final could start May 6 in Portland or Spokane, with Games 3 and 4 in Cranbrook on May 10 and 11. That is strictly tentative, however.
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The ECHL’s Victoria Salmon Kings, who are a dead team skating, head home from Anchorage trailing the Aces 2-0 after dropping a 4-3 overtime decision on Thursday night. . . . F Wes Goldie, who left the Salmon Kings over the summer despite being one of their most popular players, scored the winner at 2:15 of OT. . . . The Aces opened the Western Conference final Wednesday with a 2-1 victory, scoring the winner with nine seconds left in the third period. . . . The series resumes in Victoria with games on Saturday, Monday and, if necessary, Wednesday. . . . The Salmon Kings' fate has yet to be announced, but their owner, Vancouver-based RG Properties, has purchased the Chilliwack Bruins and is moving the WHL team to the B.C. capital.
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Doug McConachie, a former sports editor of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, died Wednesday morning after what ended up being a one-sided scrap with pancreatic cancer. McConachie was one of the last of the old breed of newspapermen. There aren’t too many of us left who remember what a typewriter sounded like, never mind what hot metal means (or used to mean). . . . Kevin Mitchell, today the sports editor at The StarPhoenix, remembers McConachie — or McDoug, as some of us called him — right here. . . . And why do I think McDoug is somewhere skiing or fishing right now?

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
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