Monday, February 11, 2008

Head injuries and the Philadelphia Flyers

Unfair or not, the question probably needs to be asked: Do the Philadelphia Flyers know how to properly handle concussions suffered by their own players? By all accounts Philly is a first-class organization. They have good crowd support, ice a competitive team (almost) every year and players want to play there. However, in light of Simon Gagne’s THIRD concussion of the season you have to wonder what they are doing when it comes to head injuries (their propensity to inflict head injuries is another issue altogether). Eric Lindros’ concussions were not handled properly. Keith Primeau was allowed to play when he had a concussion and is still paying for it today. And now Gagne. These aren’t fourth-liners hoping to stay in the league and willing to put their well-being on the line to avoid a trip down to the AHL (or out into the real world). This is headline talent we are talking about. And with Gagne pushing to get back on the ice next week, even after he was allowed to come back early in November and suffered another concussion, this situation could take a very ugly turn.

Gagne suffered a concussion on Oct. 24 and sat out four games; he then had another concussion on Nov. 7 and missed the next 26 games. His third concussion of the season was suffered on February 10th in a game against Pittsburgh. He hopes to return before the end of the season.


Hmmm... I also wonder what impact this could have on my projected Team Canada 2010 roster?

1 comment:

SWATE said...

On February 22nd Gagne shut it down for the season and is very optimistic that he'll be fine to start next season.