No concussions from fighting. Really? . . . Oil Kings pounce on Tigers . . . Silvertips hold off 'Canes

I haven’t watched Don Cherry on Coach’s Corner in a number of years, simply because I grew tired of the inane comments. Judging by social media, there was more inanity on Saturday night.
Apparently, Cherry was opining on the fight earlier in the week that featured Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby and Columbus Blue Jackets pest Brandon Dubinsky.
Did Cherry really say “never mind the concussions” in reference to Crosby’s past? Did Cherry really say "you don't see guys getting concussions from fighting.”?
He is quoted in various places on the Internet as having said same, so I’m assuming that is what came out of his mouth.
Well, I’m sorry, Mr. Cherry, but I have witnessed at least two WHL players get concussed in recent fights. Neither one was at all pretty and, at least from where I’m sitting, two is two too many.
Perhaps Mr. Cherry could take a few minutes and read this column right here. It’s by David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune and was written following the recent death of former NHLer Steve Montador.
“The brain of (Derek) Boogaard, who died of an accidental overdose in 2011 at 28,” Haugh writes, “was afflicted with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Montador also donated his brain to science for study and if CTE is found, how much more evidence does the NHL need to link fighting and concussions? Until then, the NHL preaching concussion prevention and allowing fights will be like the NFL promoting player safety but scheduling more Thursday night games.”
In the two recent incidents in which I witnessed WHL players getting concussed while fighting, one took a tremendous right hand directly to the face, while the other was struck four times straight in the head.
Like the NHL, the WHL can’t be seen as working to limit the number of concussions its players suffer while it allows them to punch each other in the head.
It just doesn’t compute, does it?
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SUNDAY’S GAMES

B.C. DIVISION: All five teams had the day off, allowing them to watch the Academy Awards as team-building exercises.
U.S. DIVISION: Everett won at home, stretching its lead atop the division to five points over idle Portland. Everett has 12 games remaining; Portland has 13.
EAST DIVISION: All six teams were given the day off, allowing them to watch the final game of the Canadian women’s curling championship as team-building exercises.
CENTRAL DIVISION: Edmonton beat visiting Medicine Hat and now holds the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot by seven points over idle Moose Jaw. Each team has 12 games left. . . . Medicine Hat is tied with idle Calgary for the division lead. Calgary has 13 games yet to play; Medicine Hat has 12. . . . Calgary is 9-1-0 in its last 10; Medicine Hat is 2-8-0.
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In Edmonton, the Oil Kings scored the game’s first five goals as they beat the Medicine Hat Tigers, 5-1. . . . The Oil Kings took control with two goals in the last two minutes of the first period. . . . F Brett Pollock scored his 26th goal, on a PP, at 18:00 and F Edgars Kulda got his eighth at 19:24. . . . Kulda and D Dysin Mayo each had a goal and an assist. Mayo has 12 goals. . . . Edmonton F Davis Koch drew two assists. . . . Tigers F Matt Bradley scored his 14th goal at 18:22 of the third, on a PP. . . . Edmonton G Tristan Jarry stopped 30 shots and earned an assist as he put on quite a display of his puck-handling skills. . . . The Tigers played their third straight game without F Trevor Cox, who leads the WHL scoring race. He was serving a three-game WHL suspension. . . . The Oil Kings improved to 27-27-6, while the Tigers slipped to 37-20-3. . . . Brian Swane of the Edmonton Sun has a game story right here. . . .

In Everett, the Silvertips jumped out to a 4-0 lead and then withstood a furious Lethbridge comeback before beating the Hurricanes, 5-4. . . . F Graham Millar gave Everett a 4-0 lead with his 12th goal at 16:12 of the first period, on a PP. . . . Lethbridge began its comeback seven seconds later on F Jamal Watson’s 23rd goal. . . . F Giorgio Estephan made it 4-2 with his 18th goal, on a PP, at 5:22 of the second. . . . F Brayden Burke got his sixth goal, at 7:14, on another PP, and now it was 4-3. . . . Everett D Noah Juulsen relieved the pressure with his seventh goal at 6:44 of the third. . . . Juulsen had missed the previous two games with an undisclosed injury. . . . F Nikita Scherbak scored his 24th goal and added two assists for Everett, while F Patrick Bajkov got his 22nd goal and an assist, and F Kohl Bauml had two helpers. . . . Scherbak came up short on a penalty shot at 19:33 of the second period, with his side leading 4-3. . . . Watson also had an assist, while F Mike Winther, back after serving a one-game suspension, drew two assists. . . . Lethbridge G Stuart Skinner stopped 34 shots, 15 more than Everett’s Austin Lotz. . . . Everett was 2-for-5 on the PP; Lethbridge was 2-for-6. . . . The Silvertips (36-17-7) are 1-1-2 in their last four. They snapped the first three-game losing streak of their season with this victory. . . . Lethbridge (18-35-7) has lost four straight (0-3-1).
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MONDAY’S GAME

(all times local)
Regina at Saskatoon, 11:30 a.m. (Inaugural Team Up for Respect game)
———

TUESDAY’S GAMES

(all times local)
Kootenay at Swift Current, 7 p.m.
Portland vs. Tri-City, at Kennewick, Wash., 7:05 p.m.
Calgary vs. Seattle, at Kent, Wash., 7:05 p.m.

@WHLHurricanes OMG the Canadian military has invaded Washington State #shootpucksnotguns #settlethisontheice #WHL
— CellPhones&PlaneTix (@hawkeyblog) February 23, 2015

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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.)

WHL final down to one game . . . Dead-puck era coming to end in WHL?

This deer, along with seven of his/her friends, strolled by our deck. When
asked, they said they were on their way to Portland for Game 7.

You don’t have to be a huge hockey fan to understand that analytics are beginning to play a role in the way management looks at the game.
It’s not that long ago when it dawned on those inside the game that faceoffs are of the utmost important, that you are so much better off to win the draw and have possession of the puck, rather than to lose and be chasing it.
These days, things quickly are progressing well past that point.
Analytics now looks at things like dump-ins vs. zone entry, shooting percentage, shot quality, even-strength save percentages, adjusted plus-minus rating and on and on it goes.
Of course, there is one other number that figures into all of this, and that is attendance.
It could be that when Ron Toigo, the majority owner of the Vancouver Giants, told Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province that he wants his team to score 300 goals, he is really drawing a line linking his team’s offence to tickets sold.
According to Ewen, Toigo wants the Giants to change their game. Rather than owning a team whose game plan comprises the big bang theory -- dump and chase, bang and crash -- Toigo wants, as Ewen wrote, a team that will “play a puck-possession, skill game.”
Of course, that can be easier said than done, but Toigo told Ewen that he feels that kind of game matches the talent on the Giants’ roster.
“We want to score 300 goals,” Toigo told Ewen.
You should know that the Giants, in this dead-puck era, have scored fewer than 300 goals in each of the last five seasons. Two seasons ago, they didn’t even score 200 goals.
In 2008-09, the Giants scored 319 goals, with centre Casey Pierro-Zabotel winning the scoring title, with 115 points, and Evander Kane scoring 48 goals. At the gate, the Giants averaged 8,470 fans per game as they went 57-10-2-3 to finish atop the Western Conference. (They lost the conference final to the Kelowna Rockets in six games.)
This season, the Giants scored 234 goals, went 32-29-11 and wound up seventh in the conference. They were swept from a first-round series by the Portland Winterhawks. In the regular season, Vancouver’s average attendance was 6,266, down from 7,205 the previous season and down more than 2,000 per game from 2008-09.
It is no wonder, then, that Toigo says the Giants’ new head coach, whomever that may be, will be a puck-possession guy.
Chances are good, I think, that you will see more teams headed in this direction as more and more owners/operators come to the realization that they are in the entertainment business and that more needs to be done to provide an entertaining product for the fans. With regular-season attendance having fallen in 19 of 22 WHL cities, some people are starting to realize that more offence just might mean more fannies in the seats.
After all, would you rather watch a game like the won in Edmonton on Sunday evening, in which the Portland Winterhawks beat the Oil Kings 6-5 in overtime, or the one in Chicago later that night in which the Blackhawks beat the Minnesota Wild, 2-1?
Yes, this could be the beginning of the end for the dead-puck era, at least in the WHL.
---



1. For a look at some analytics from Game 6 of the WHL’s championship final, check out Megan’s Twitter account (@butyoucarlotta).

2. There had been speculation that Glen Hanlon could be the next head coach of the Vancouver Giants. However, Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province indicated early Saturday that Hanlon won’t be the man. . . . Hanlon, a former Giants assistant coach under head coach Don Hay, is the head coach of the Belarusian national team, the host team at the IIHF world championship that is ongoing in Minsk. . . . Ewen asked Hanlon about the Giants’ job and received this email: “It would be a great job for me and my family, but I’m under contract for next year.” . . . Ewen also reported: “There have been reports Hanlon, the former Vancouver Canucks goaltender, is taking over the Swiss men’s team.”

3. Congrats to old friend Bruce Enns, who was inducted into the Basketball BC Hall of Fame on Saturday night at the Langley Entertainment Centre. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since Enns, then the head coach with the U of Winnipeg Wesmen men’s team, taught an eager, young sports reporter about the finer aspects of the game.

4. Did Pittsburgh Penguins F Sidney Crosby look like a frustrated hockey player last night, or what? Does he get fined for throwing a spear at New York Rangers F Brian Boyle? Does Rangers G Henrik Lundqvist get fined for squirting water in Crosby’s face? Do these guys adjourn to a sandbox when the game is over?

5. How big has the NFL draft become? Consider this from Richard Deitsch of SI.com: “Viewers could not get enough of it. The combined audience on Thursday night for ESPN and NFL Network's first round coverage was 12.4 million viewers, making it the most-watched first round ever. Taken separately, ESPN averaged 9,943,000 viewers during the first round, up 60 percent over 2013. The NFL Network's first-round coverage drew 2.4 million viewers, a 60 percent increase over last year's record (1.5 million viewers). As for the entire draft, ESPN's 15-plus hours on ESPN and ESPN2 averaged 4,121,000 viewers, a 36 percent gain over 2013 (3,035,000), while The NFL Network viewership was up 33 percent over last year. draft coverage of all rounds across ESPN, ESPN2, and NFLN averaged 5.4M viewers, the most-watched draft in history.” . . . Deitsch’s complete media column, which always is an excellent read, is right here.

6. The Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens are meeting in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the 34th time. And one only needs to mention ‘Too Many Men’ for hockey fans to know . . . right here is Michael Farber of Sports Illustrated with a great read.
---
THE QMJHL FINAL:
In Val-d’Or, two goals from Pierre-Maxime Poudrier helped the Foreurs to a 6-3 victory over the Baie-Comeau Drakkar on Sunday. . . . The series is 3-3 with the championship to be decided Tuesday night in Baie-Comeau.
---
THE COACHING GAME:
The OHL’s Ottawa 67’s announced late Sunday night that they are in the market for a head coach. Chris Byrne, who had been their general manager and head coach, has stepped aside as head coach in order to focus on the GM’s duties. . . . The 67’s didn’t qualify for the playoffs this season.
---
Jamie Fiesel, the general manager and head coach of the Melville Millionaires, has signed an extension with the SJHL team that will take him through the 2015-16 season. Fiesel was named the SJHL’s coach of the year this season after the Millionaires finished 34-16-2-4.
---

THE FOURTH ROUND (best-of-seven; all times local):
WHL final, for the Ed Chynoweth Cup
(All games televised live by Shaw)
(All games televised on delayed basis by Root Sports)
PORTLAND (2, West) vs. Edmonton (1, East)
(Series tied, 3-3)
Season series: Portland, 0-0-1; Edmonton, 1-0-0.
Saturday: Edmonton 2 at Portland 5 (10,947)
Sunday: Edmonton 1 at Portland 3 (10,645)
Tuesday: Portland 2 at Edmonton 3 (6,799)
Wednesday: Portland 0 at Edmonton 2 (7,859)
Friday: Edmonton 3 at Portland 2 (10,947)
Sunday: Portland 6 at Edmonton 5 (OT) (11,902)
Monday: Edmonton at Portland, 7 p.m. (Veterans Memorial Coliseum)
---

SUNDAY’S GAME:
In Edmonton,  F Keegan Iverson scored at 7:23 of OT as the Portland Winterhawks beat the Oil Kings 6-5 to force a seventh game in the WHL’s championship final for the Ed Chynoweth Cup. . . . Game 7 is scheduled for tonight in Portland’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum. . . . The teams shared a charter flight back to Portland following last night’s game. . . . Each of these teams has played on back-to-back nights in these playoffs. But neither team has played back-to-back in different cities. . . . The Winterhawks overcame 3-0 and 5-2 deficits to force extra time. . . . Iverson won it with his fourth goal of the playoffs, tipping in a shot by F Dominic Turgeon. . . . Portland D Derrick Pouliot, who had a goal and two assists, forced OT with his fifth goal at 11:14 of the third period. . . . The Oil Kings led 3-0 after one period, thanks to two goals from F Henrik Samuelsson, who has eight goals, six of them in the final, and one from F Edgars Kulda. . . . The Winterhawks cut into that lead in the second period, getting goals from D Mathew Dumba, on the PP, and D Anton Cederholm. . . . Edmonton got both those goals back before the period ended, with F Curtis Lazar scoring at 13:57 and Kulda getting his 10th at 14:46. . . . Dumba got the Portland comeback started with his eighth goal, via the PP, at 2:57 of the third. . . . D Keoni Texeira added his second goal at 6:09, setting the stage for Pouliot’s tying goal. . . . If you’re counting, Portland got its first five goals from defencemen. . . . Pouliot has 32 points, tying him for the playoff scoring lead with teammate Oliver Bjorkstrand. Bjorkstrand leads in goals (15); Pouliot is tops in assists (27). . . . A defenceman has never won a WHL playoff scoring title. . . . F Mitch Moroz and D Dysin Mayo each had two assists for Edmonton. . . . Portland G Corbin Boes surrendered three goals on 10 shots and left after the first period. Brendan Burke came on to stop 28 of 30 shots. . . . Edmonton G Tristan Jarry stopped 35 shots. . . . Portland was 2-for-5 on the PP; Edmonton was 1-for-4. . . . The last time the WHL’s championship series went seven games was two seasons ago. The Oil Kings beat the visiting Winter hawks 4-1 in Game 7. . . .
---
Here’s Mike Johnston, Portland’s GM/head coach, to Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal: “We’ve had some sickness in this series and (Boes) was a little under the weather. . . . I thought his fatigue was showing in the first period with some of his rebounds. (It was) one of those gut things. You make a decision. Sometimes it works out. We did it in the Kelowna series, too.”
So who does Johnston start tonight? Perhaps a flu bug will make the decision for him.
---
A game story from Brian Swane of the Edmonton Sun is right here.
The game story filed by Chris O’Leary of the Edmonton Journal is right here.
---







From WHL Facts (@WHLFacts): “May 11 - Since 1999, 14 WHL Championships have been decided between May 7th and the 14th... But none on May 11th.” . . . That was tweeted before Sunday's game, so you now can make it 15.
---
From Edmonton Sun sports columnist Terry Jones (@sunterryjones): “In WHL final history no visiting team has managed to win Game 7. Oil Kings in Portland on Monday night. Winner to Memorial Cup.”
---
From Portland freelancer Scott Sepich (@SSepich): “Portland's never hosted a Game 7 of the WHL final. Also hasn't won WHL title in Portland since 1982.”


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The concussion conundrum of Chase Souto

Chase Souto (39) of the Kamloops Blazers isn't afraid
to venture into enemy territory.
(Photo by Murray Mitchell / Kamloops Daily News)

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor

Chase Souto, a sophomore left winger with the Kamloops Blazers, had a hunch that he was feeling the effects of the third concussion of his young WHL career.
Immediately after the elbow hit his head near the middle of the second period, there was dizziness. Within minutes, the headache arrived like a salesman pounding on your door. It was Sept. 10 and the Blazers were involved in an exhibition game against the Rockets in Kelowna. It being an exhibition game, it meant that if you got into a fight you would be ejected.
Souto, a 17-year-old from Yorba Linda, Calif., did just that. He scrapped with Tyrell Goulbourne and got tossed, which meant he could hide the concussion from trainer Colin (Toledo) Robinson.
“I tried to do that. I tried to hide it from Toledo . . . I’m not going to lie,” Souto said. “I did that fight so I could get out of the game without telling him.”
The next day, Souto was disoriented. He was sensitive to light. He didn’t want to eat.
What to do?
“I was a little scared . . . I didn’t know what would happen next,” Souto said Tuesday after practising in a yellow (‘Don’t hit me!’) jersey at Interior Savings Centre.
He talked with Jack Bowkus, his coach back in California, but didn’t know whether to tell him. Bowkus knows all about the WHL. He played four seasons (1984-88) with the Saskatoon Blades.
Souto said: “I was, like, should I tell him? Should I hope it’s a little one and it’ll go away?”
On Sept. 12, two days after the elbow hit his jaw, Souto was back on the ice.
“I skated,” he said, “and it didn’t feel right.”
By now he was most concerned.
“Crosby has taken eight months to recover,” he said, “and you just don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Yes, NHL star Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins hasn’t played since the first week of January and concussions, or the care and prevention of same, are very much in the spotlight.
Unfortunately for Souto, he knows all about them.
———
The first concussion, he said, was the worst. But the second one “hurt the worst, by far.”
This one, No. 3 if you will, “was probably the scariest because you just don’t know what’s going to happen.”
———
The first one . . .
Just four games into last season, forward Blair Wentworth laid out Souto in the neutral zone in Chilliwack’s Prospera Centre.
Wentworth drew a two-game suspension for the hit. The resulting concussion cost Souto seven games and he was listed as a healthy scratch in three of the four games after he was cleared to play.
“I was skating to dump the puck in,” recalled Souto, who got hit in the area between the benches. “I was unconscious. I don’t remember after the first period. I woke up with Toledo looking down at me. I came to in the dressing room.”
Souto learned from the first concussion that you can’t hurry back from this type of injury.
He thought he was symptom-free when he returned to off-ice workouts, but quickly learned otherwise.
“I started getting headaches because I wasn’t fully recovered yet,” he said. “That set me back a little bit.”
———
The second one . . .
It occurred in the season’s 64th game, as the Blazers were playing the Kootenay Ice in Cranbrook.
“As soon as it happened, I knew,” Souto said. “I didn’t lose consciousness but I knew I had one. I got really shaky and I felt like I didn’t have enough sugar in my body or something like that. I was trying to eat PowerBars and drink water on the bench but that didn’t do anything. When I went in the locker-room, I knew.”
Asked if either of the hits that resulted in concussions might have been avoided, Souto responded:
 Continued from A8
“The first one for sure . . . I think he was trying to hurt me there. The second one . . . I think he was just finishing his check and I got caught in the wrong spot.” Souto isn’t even sure which Ice player hit him.
Souto missed four games after the second concussion. He then returned for two games before sitting out the final two games of the regular season.
———
And now Souto is recovering from No. 3. He talks about playing Saturday when the Blazers open their regular season against the visiting Prince George Cougars. But the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes tell you that he knows that is most unlikely.
“I feel really good now,” he said. “I could play tomorrow. “
Then he paused and grinned.
“Ahh,” he said. “I probably couldn’t . . . doctors.”
When Souto returns will be up to the Blazers’ medical staff. That responsibility no longer rests in the hands of team trainers and athletic therapists. Robinson couldn’t be more pleased because concussions, he said, may be the most difficult thing with which he deals.
“It isn’t black and white,” the veteran trainer said. “It’s purple and green and yellow. They are so frustrating. Each one is unique.”
Souto, again, is into protection mode. What will he do to better protect himself in an attempt to avoid No. 4?
“I will try to protect myself more, not put myself in vulnerable positions like I did,” he said.
That might be easier said than done because Souto earned a roster spot a year ago in no small part because of his high energy level.
He admitted that he was trying to make an impression a year ago, something he doesn’t feel he needs to do now.
“A little bit, yeah,” he said. “But I didn’t know that these guys I was playing against were so much bigger and stronger.”
And now, after the latest concussion, he said he may alter something else, too.
“I might have to change my game up a little bit and not be so yappy to the other team or something like that,” Souto said. “Me and him (Kelowna’s Tanner Moar) were chirping back and forth all game.”
———
While it would be nice to cut down on the number of concussions — there were more than 100 in the WHL last season — Souto believes concussions, at least to some degree, are here to stay.
“When a guy’s got his head down coming down the middle of the ice,” he said, “it’s pretty tough to make sure you don’t hit any part of his head. Someone is going to hit it.”
He also pointed out that a player can get concussed without being hit in the head.
“Whiplash . . . your head goes back or it hits the ice . . . that’s the sport we play,” he said.
Souto finished last season with five points, including four goals, and 72 penalty minutes in 49 games. Oddly enough, he ended up with almost as many fighting majors (8) as minor penalties (11).
“If you’re willing to drop the gloves, you know the risks you’re taking, I think,” he said. “If some guy gets jumped, that’s a different story. But if two guys drop the gloves, they know what they’re getting into.”
During a recent news conference, Crosby called for a complete ban on headshots. While he agrees with Crosby, Souto wonders if that is possible.
“That would be a perfect world,” Souto said, “and unfortunately we don’t live in a perfect world.”
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.)

The WHL and concussions: A mother cries out for help

Killian Hutt's season with the Swift Current Broncos came to an end
in Kamloops on Dec. 10.
(Photo by Murray Mitchell/Kamloops Daily News)

When Zdeno Chara ran Max Pacioretty into a turnbuckle in Montreal one night last week, who could have anticipated the aftermath?
Sheesh, even Air Canada and Via Rail got into the act, as did, predictably, the odd spotlight-seeking politician.
When things like this happen in places like Montreal and Boston, or Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, the tendency in our little corner of the world is to yawn, shrug and move on.
But if you are a fan of this great game of ours, perhaps you should be concerned. Because the rules changed this month.
When Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy revealed that the brain of former NHL enforcer Bob Probert exhibited "the same degenerative disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy" that is connected to multiple concussions, the curtains were pulled back to reveal a whole new world.
Who in this generation could relate to CTE having been found in the brain of Reggie Fleming, who played in the NHL in the 1960s? Probert, though, is a different story. He’s recent. He’s more relevant.
That this news came with Sidney Crosby, the best player in the world, struggling with post-concussion syndrome only intensified the glare of the spotlight.
The WHL, if you haven’t noticed, isn’t a whole lot different than the NHL. Oh, the NHL’s players may be bigger, faster and more skilled, and they may get paid more, but the problems are the same.
And just like head shots and accompanying injuries are an epidemic in the NHL, they are an epidemic in the WHL.
In fact, a case can be made that concussions are more prevalent in the WHL than in the NHL.
No official numbers are available regarding the NHL, but the 30-team league has acknowledged that there have been about 80 players diagnosed with concussions this season.
The 22-team WHL’s weekly injury list, dated March 15, shows 11 players out with what are described as concussions or head injuries. That’s down from 21 the previous week. A study of this season’s 24 injury reports shows at least 97 instances in which a player has been shown as being out with a concussion or head injury. Eight players have twice been so injured, while one player appears to have had three head injuries.
The count also includes at least three players whose concussions have been season-ending.
And now the mother of a WHL player is wondering when enough is enough.
An email from her contains the subject line: Who killed Davey Moore?
———
Davey Moore, an American featherweight boxer, died of inoperable brain damage on March 25, 1963, four days after losing a bout at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
Shortly after, Bob Dylan penned the ballad Who Killed Davey Moore?
“Who killed Davey Moore
“Why an’ what’s the reason for?”
During the course of the song, the referee, the angry crowd, Moore’s manager, the gambling man, the boxing writer and Moore’s opponent all deny complicity in the boxer’s death.
———
“I am the mother of a WHL player and I feel sick watching our children inflicting and receiving potentially life altering injuries and saying nothing,” she wrote.
This being hockey, of course, she asked for anonymity “in order not to damage my child’s chances.”
The email and subsequent communications reveal a woman who is heartbroken at what she is witnessing as hockey becomes more and more violent, although not in the bench-clearing ways of days of yore.
No, her son hasn’t suffered a concussion or head injury this season. But she has seen enough, just the same.
“The players work so hard to get to the WHL that we as parents are loathe to get in the way of their success,” she wrote. “So we stand by and watch a 19-year-old have a seizure on the ice in the name of entertainment for the crowd.
“Then a 16-year-old is being punched by a 19-year-old and the crowd is delighted.
“We all know this is not right. How can we as parents send our kids into this and not object to the failure of this league to adequately protect them? Nobody is protecting our children. These are not consenting adults with million dollar contracts and a players association.”
In Kamloops this season, we have watched as two players had their seasons ended by especially violent physical encounters.
First, on Dec. 10, Kamloops right-winger Jordan DePape drilled Swift Current forward Killian Hutt with a blind-side hit that drew a five-game suspension. Hutt went into convulsions, left the ice on a stretcher and spent a night in hospital. He was left with a severe concussion and, although he has skated, isn’t symptom free and won’t play again this season.
Then, on Feb. 4, Blazers defenceman Austin Madaisky was spun around and checked into the boards by Chilliwack Bruins defenceman Brandon Manning. Madaisky escaped a concussion but was left with a non-displaced fracture of the seventh cervicular vertebrae. Manning served a seven-game suspension; Madaisky continues to wear an Aspen collar and will for another couple of weeks. If the injury continues to heal properly, he will avoid surgery and will be back on the ice over the summer.
“When there is a spinal injury people will say, ‘That's hockey,’ ” the mother wrote. “But that's not true. These are preventable injuries and we are not even trying to prevent them; in fact, the WHL profits off them by catering to the bizarre tastes of some people in the crowd.
“This is not acceptable. These are our children. We are all responsible to them — parents, reporters, coaches, etc.
“They trust us and we betray that trust. When the consequences of those concussions hit home there will be no cheering crowds.”

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