Former pro hockey player awarded $605,000 over sex assault by coach


By KIM WESTAD, Timescolonist.com April 6, 2011


A former pro hockey player who said his NHL career was cut short because of sexual abuse inflicted by a childhood coach has been awarded $605,000 by the B.C. Supreme Court.

The 35-year-old Victoria businessman, who was good enough to be drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs, sued former coach Richard Hall in civil court for damages resulting from two sexual assaults when he was 13.

Justice Dev Dley ruled in a written judgment that the assaults and their impact — drinking, dysfunction and mental health difficulties — damaged the man's National Hockey League career, specifically the loss of a first three-year contract with the NHL.

The judge awarded a total of $605,000, covering everything from loss of money from that first contract, about $372,000, to $4,500 for future psychotherapy.

Hall, a former Oak Bay Minor Hockey Association coach, had also abused two minor hockey players, who later successfully sued the provincial government. The judge in that case ruled that Hall's probation officer was negligent in the fulfilment of his duties and the provincial government, as the probation officer's employer, was liable.

The probation officer had a duty to inform the minor hockey association that Hall had been convicted in 1984 of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy and had been sentenced to two years probation.

However, the association was not told and Hall went on to sexually abuse more players, including the man who successfully sued the provincial government this week.

Hall assaulted the man twice in the summer of 1988, including oral and anal intercourse. The assaults left the boy, who had been close to the coach, feeling betrayed, angry and ashamed.

He disclosed the assaults in 1989, after other sexual assaults by Hall were publicized.

The player carried on with hockey, his lawyer Doug Thompson said, although he experienced an undercurrent of anger when he walked into a rink, found it difficult to trust another coach and had difficulty forming relationships. In Grade 10, he discovered alcohol.

By Grade 11, he had drawn the eye of U.S. universities and the Western Hockey League.

He completed Grade 12 playing in the WHL, though he felt anger and a lack of emotional control on the ice, Dley wrote.

He drew the attention of the Maple Leafs when he was 17 and was drafted by them.

In the years before and shortly after, he still lashed out on the ice, and had numerous drunken binges. By early 1995, he had bottomed out, Dley said, and it was only then that he told his team managers about the abuse. He was counselled that year and had the best year of his junior career.

However, his career did not lead to the NHL. In June 1995, the Leafs told him they would not offer him a contract. He played hockey for several more years in the American Hockey League and the East Coast Hockey League, both below the NHL.

Although Thompson argued that the man's career was hurt in various ways by the abuse, the judge ruled that the main impact was the loss of a first contract with an NHL team. The abuse created several mood and personality disorders, diagnosed by a psychologist.

Hockey requires not just physical ability, Dley wrote, but emotional control, mental toughness, a strong sense of identity, trust, a positive attitude and coachability in order to excel.

"I am satisfied that the plaintiff's disorders, which affected his mental health, had a negative impact on the mental and emotional tools required to fully realize one's potential as a professional hockey player," Dley wrote.

Without the disorders, Dley wrote, there was a "real possibility that the plaintiff would have been drafted higher. A higher draft position would likely have resulted in the plaintiff being given a better chance to secure a contract. ... The plaintiff was denied that opportunity."
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Court awards abused BC hockey player cash

Tamsyn Burgmann, The Canadian Press, April 7, 2011

VANCOUVER - A British Columbia judge has awarded more than half a million dollars to a former hockey player who was sexually assaulted by his coach, a decision an ex-NHL star who was abused himself says is most meaningful if it helps the victim heal.

B.C. Supreme Court Judge Dev Dley awarded the victim $605,000 in damages after ruling the 35-year-old B.C. man's playing career suffered because he was sexually molested twice by his junior hockey coach when he was 13.

The man, who is not identified in the judgment, sued the B.C. government to get compensation for the possible income he might have earned through multiple hockey contracts over several years.

The province admitted liability in the case, after a previous trial found a probation officer failed to tell the minor hockey association where the man first played that convicted sex offender Richard Hall was volunteering in the organization.

In early March, a Victoria court heard expert testimony that the abuse was a critical factor in the development of dysfunctional moods and excessive drinking as the man grew older, and that those problems limited what might have been a promising hockey career.

The judge said without the disorders there is a real possibility the man would have had a better chance to secure an NHL contract. Dley noted in his written judgment posted online on Wednesday that the victim was a Toronto Maple Leafs prospect but never made the team.

Former Calgary Flames forward Theo Fleury, whose 2009 autobiography exposed his own story of sexual abuse as a teen, said the most significant part of the ruling was the portion of costs awarded for rehabilitation.

The man was awarded nearly $15,000 for vocational rehabilitation and psychotherapy, in addition to $372,000 for the loss of his unrealized first hockey contract and other damages.

"At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how much time the perpetrator serves, it doesn't matter how much the government pays," Fleury, co-author of Playing With Fire, said in an interview.

"In the end, you want the individual to get the therapy that they need so that they can live a happy, productive life and at peace. At the end of the day, there isn't a certain amount of money that's going to make the pain go away."

Fleury is now a vocal opponent of sex crimes he says permeates not just hockey, but all parts of society. He's still waiting for prominent former coach Graham James— who served almost two years in jail in the late 1990s but later got a federal pardon — to go to trial on nine new sex charges involving himself and two other boys.

Fleury was encouraged by the recent judgment, and said he hopes it pushes governments to enact stiffer laws and forces people in authority, like politicians and police officers, to "pay more attention."

But the outcome didn't sway him to advise all victims to go to the courts.

"It's really up to each individual, where they are in their life," he said.

"If you're in the beginning of your recovery process it's probably not a good idea to throw that on top of what your'e already dealing with."

According to the judgment, the victim was taken under the wing of his abuser starting at age 10, when they went fishing and to the movies together.

"The plaintiff looked upon Mr. Hall as a father figure and big brother," the judgement said of the elder, who was a goalie coach.

When the boy was 13, Hall convinced him his niece wanted to engage in sex acts as long as the boy was blindfolded.

The boy complied but lifted his blindfold to realize the person was Hall.

"The plaintiff was horrified as to what had occurred and terminated his relationship with his assailant. The plaintiff was ashamed and embarrassed. He told no one."

Hall's actions were made public a year later, and the boy told his parents what happened. He got a medical exam but no counselling. The judgment describes the following years of his life, in which he progressed in hockey playing at various levels, as ones in which he increasingly suffered from personality, depressive and alcohol abuse disorders.

Character Study: How coach Red Berenson has spent 26 years making Michigan Men

By Ryan Kartje
Daily Sports Editor On April 11th, 2010

Chris Fox stood at the corner of State and Hoover Street, unsure of where he would go from there.

His path to college hockey had been laid before him like the yellow brick road. Nearly every Division I hockey program had shown interest in him, so he had options at his disposal. He was going to be a star no matter what corner of the country he ended up in.

It was 1993 and his decision had been narrowed down to just three schools. Bill Cleary, who had won the NCAA Championship just a few years prior, wanted him in Harvard Crimson. Ron Mason, the winningest coach in college hockey history, thought he should be a Spartan.

And then there was Michigan.

With Yost Ice Arena a block south, Fox glanced up from in front of Weidenbach Hall and an unforeseen bout of nerves began to set in.

Flanked by his parents, the 17-year-old fought down the nerves, and took the stairs up to a corner office that overlooked the busy Ann Arbor street, which he stood on just moments ago.

He knew who waited on the other side of the thick wooden door.

As the door opened, Fox peered in at a man that he had only heard of before. His reputation, to say the least, preceded him.

Fox had heard that he took a great deal of his coaching acumen from Scotty Bowman, who had just taken over as head coach of the Detroit Red Wings. But at this moment, the coach, with his skin cracked and rough and his blue eyes piercing, felt more like Clint Eastwood circa Dirty Harry.

So the nerves came back, this time like a tidal wave.

This is Red Berenson. He’s a legend, Fox thought to himself.

The coach stood before the Foxes, just as many other coaches had before him. Cleary and Mason glowed about Chris’s potential. “What can we do for you?,” they would ask.

But this coach, the same man who scored six goals in a game for the St. Louis Blues, the same man who won NHL Coach of the Year in 1981, the same man who had singlehandedly made Michigan relevant again, wasn’t the glowing type.

“So,” the coach said, turning to Chris Fox, “What can you do for Michigan?”

Fox was stunned.

For months, coaches catered to his needs, promised him playing time. What did he owe this man he had just met? Who was recruiting whom here?

The coach sensed his hesitation. He had a knack for that sort of thing, like this moment was all scripted beforehand, as if he was prepared for Fox’s apprehensive response. It was part of the game.

“If you want to be a Michigan Man, you should know in the next week,” the coach said to the recruit, who looked and felt much more like a kid than he did when he walked into the office just minutes before. “It will just become clear.”

Fox left bearing the weight of words he didn't quite understand. What was it about this coach that gave him license to give him an ultimatum? He wasn’t sure. Berenson’s aura had left him shaken, but even more curious.

So the Foxes made their way down the block to Yost Ice Arena that Friday to watch Michigan, in future Hobey Baker-winner Brendan Morrison’s debut, defeat Notre Dame in a rout, 13-0.

The steely glare. The ultimatum. The aura. It all seemed to make sense to the 17-year-old after the game.

Chris Fox marched up to Berenson’s office soon after the game ended that night and committed. He wanted to be a Michigan Man.

**

Renovations in 1996, soon after Fox’s meeting, opened up a room perched at the top of Yost Ice Arena which would become Berenson's office. It was supposed to function as a library of sorts, the coach tells me, but that didn’t make any sense.

I look around confused. This place sure looks like a library, I think to myself.

Berenson reads my mind. “I guess it’s more like a museum now,” he says.

He’s right. The room is lined with trophies, plaques, and maize and blue memorabilia.

The coach has his own bobblehead. So do a few of his players: a Brendan Morrison, a Marty Turco. There's the two national championship trophies, as well as a host of others. My eyes scan across the room and down the walnut shelving. It’s hard not to as light pours in from the bay window, catching every hint of gold in the room.

I think of how many people have walked into this room and sat where I was, asking for the coach’s wisdom.

It’s hard not to listen to him when he talks. My attention frequently sharpens with anticipation which builds each time Berenson pauses. “He’s just thinking about so many things at once,” junior Louie Caporusso jokes to me, “His brain has so much knowledge to process.”

Caporusso tells me later about the first time he met Berenson. Fourteen years old, the Toronto native had one objective to make the best first impression.

“The only thing I was thinking was when I shake his hand, I’m going to shake it as hard as I could to look as strong as possible.”

“I shook his hand and he says, ‘You’ve got a strong handshake. I like that.’ ”

Caporusso continues the story, describing the aura that I can’t help but be consumed by as I sit across from the coach, as a wealth of experience and adversity stares back at me.

Gordon Berenson grew up on the outskirts of Regina, Saskatchewan with a rink always right around the corner. His uncle, a schoolteacher, ensured he had the resources to excel, and by the time young Gordon was 11, he was already graduating junior high school.

As he made his way through high school, Gordon’s hockey prospects began to look more and more bright.

But his schoolwork interested him too, and it wasn’t until his coach, Murray Armstrong, took the head coaching job at Denver University that he realized what he was in for.

“There’s only six teams (in the NHL),” Armstrong told him at the time. “You better grow up and get an education, so you don’t become a hockey bum.”

“So I grew up with that fear,” the coach says. “I don’t want to be a hockey bum. I want to get an education.”

The Montreal Canadiens, who had drafted him out of high school, assured him he would never be one.

Before Berenson even stepped foot on Michigan’s campus, where he decided to play hockey, the Canadiens came calling. They told him he was crazy to consider going to college. He was throwing his career away.

“Montreal was waiting,” Berenson said. “They tried to bribe me, pay me, and I said, ‘No, I’m going to school.’ ”

The Canadiens would not be deterred. They wined him. They dined him. They even devised an elaborate plan involving Berenson going to McGill University’s engineering school while playing a 70-game, NHL season.

But when the dean of the engineering school at McGill told him it was impossible and advised him to go back to Ann Arbor, he knew the Canadiens would have to wait. They did, and soon after, he became the first college hockey player to bridge the gap to the NHL.

Berenson told this story to Caporusso — like he has to many players before him — as they sat together in a Seattle airport, waiting for the second leg of their return flight from Alaska this season.

And while Berenson spoke, Caporusso began to understand the aura that surrounds his coach.

“He went against the grain, and I think that’s why he’s become such a special figure in hockey,” Caporusso says. “I love that about him because he knows exactly what he wants. For anyone else, it would’ve been a no-brainer. Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of people would have taken it, but he didn’t, that’s what’s so great about him.”

**

Two years had passed for Chris Fox, and in his sophomore season, he still wasn't quite sure why he was here.

With the pressure of blue-chip status bearing down on him, Fox had yet to make a big impact in Ann Arbor. All of the reasons why he came to Michigan: the hockey program, the coach, the education — he begins to question what each one of them truly means to him.

But academically, Fox began to see a future shaping up for him in the medical field. His pre-med courses were his favorite, and ever since his sister was diagnosed with leukemia at a young age, the thought of being a doctor had always appealed to him.

But what about the NHL? Hockey meant so much to him, and his highly competitive recruitment seemed like it had stamped a ticket for him to the big leagues.

Thoughts of transferring and leaving this place behind began to materialize in his mind. He approached associate head coach Mel Pearson with his worries, and Pearson did his best to convince the defenseman to stick it out, even with eight other defensemen on the roster.

“It wasn’t always easy here for Chris,” Pearson says.

So Fox brought his worries to Berenson, whose wisdom was well documented by then.

And Berenson was far from surprised by his young player’s complaints. Fox wasn’t the first, and surely not the last blue-chip recruit to experience an identity crisis when entering the college ranks.

“All these kids are star players when they get here, and then they have to accept a different role and earn that role,” Berenson says. “When he got here, he was a highly recruited player … He really struggled at this level to be ready every night.”

But the coach was the last person who would let Fox, or any player for that matter, walk out on his education without a fight. He began to push Fox to focus on his pre-med classes, explaining that his future, more than likely, lied in the field of medicine, not hockey.

The coach’s response burned Fox up inside. He had never had to face this kind of adversity, and why would he? Everything on the rink was easy before his last two years in a Michigan uniform.

“Someone was telling me that I wasn’t good enough,” Fox recalls. “And I’d never had that before.”

The coach could sense Fox’s discontent. So he told Fox something he would never forget. And he never did.

“ ‘This is adversity,’ he told me. ‘This is what a lot of life is about, facing these challenges and figuring out a way through them and around them. You’ll look on this and be happy that you had this experience.’ ”

Slowly, but surely, after a series of conversations with his coach, Fox began to buy in to what Berenson was preaching. He didn’t have to be a prima donna to fill his niche on the ice. Soon, Berenson began to put Fox out on the ice more often, and before he knew it, Fox had found his place on the team. And aside from an assault charge and subsequent stemming from an incident that took place in the summer before his 1997-98 season which Berenson called uncharacteristic of Fox, by the end of the year, the coaching staff thought his contributions had become more important than the pockmark on his record.

The Wolverines won the national championship in Fox’s sophomore season with Fox playing a small role, but it was two years later, as a senior, in which Fox began to take form right before the coach’s eyes.

It was the 1998 national championship against Boston College and the game was deadlocked 17 minutes into overtime.

Fox took the puck and faked a shot from the left point as a Boston College player went down. Fox drifted behind the Eagle net and passed to Josh Langfeld, a freshman at the time. It was Fox’s dump-off and Langfeld’s next shot that sealed the Wolverines’ second national championship in three years.

The defenseman remains one of Berenson’s biggest success stories. To this day, he still gushes about Fox’s story, despite the fact that Fox never made it to the NHL.

Caporusso retells it to me. Senior defenseman Steve Kampfer tells me yet again. Both use Fox as examples of a player Berenson is most proud of.

“It’s not what’re we going to do for you, it’s what’re you going to do for Michigan,” Fox repeats today with Berenson’s voice echoing through his speech. “How are you going to make this a better place? That’s the kind of character he wants in kids at Michigan. He wants good hockey players, but really, he wants good students, good citizens, good people, people he’d be proud of to say 20 years down the line that ‘I was proud I coached that kid when he was 18.’ “

**

Since Berenson became Michigan’s head coach in 1984, the landscape of professional hockey has changed drastically, making it increasingly difficult for the aging coach to relay his message: that there is life after hockey.

NHL teams began calling players at a younger and younger age. Michigan commits began dropping like flies without their degrees, and the coach’s frustration has become increasingly obvious; he furrows his brow as he discusses the state of his beloved sport.

Players like Andy Hilbert — who was drafted in the second round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft by Boston — leave early to pursue their childhood dream of playing in the big leagues. Most don’t have a backup plan.

The coach continues to warn his young players of the dangers of leaving early for the NHL, fearing that they will someday live his worst nightmare — being a “hockey bum.”

Hilbert, like others after him, drifts in and out of the NHL, never truly earning his shot.

They’re hockey bums, Berenson understands. And now, it’s his goal to save as many of his players from the same fate. But every year becomes more of a struggle.

Last season, the Wolverines’ best threat on offense, Aaron Palushaj, found himself in Berenson’s office after Michigan’s season ended in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Palushaj had made up his mind, and the coach did his best to support his decision. The sophomore forward had been drafted by the Blues, Berenson’s old team, and the temptation was too great not to leave.

“When you’re 19 years old and have to sign a pro contract, you really don’t know what’s going to happen,” Palushaj says. “I’m not Andy Hilbert, I’m a different person. If you think it’s time for you to go, you can’t just sit back and be scared not to sign. You hold your future in your hands.”

An injury hindered Palushaj from making a splash in his first season. Then, soon after he became healthy again, the forward was traded away to Montreal. Today, Palushaj is with the Hamilton Bulldogs, fighting tooth and nail for the dream he left Ann Arbor to fulfill.

“A lot of guys understand what Red’s talking about after the fact,” Pearson says. “Maybe when you’re 19 or 20, you see the money, you see the glitz and the glamour, and they don’t realize till later on, ‘I knew what he was doing, he was trying to protect me.’ “

Berenson gets worked up as he remembers players who left his system early. It’s almost as if he feels like he’s failed them, and his paternal side begins to show through with each example he gives. With each player, he promises the same thing: “If you’re good enough for the NHL, I’ll drive you to the airport.”

All of his players know this mantra. Jack Johnson, the third pick in the 2005 NHL Draft, is one of the few able to take advantage of it. But he’s the exception, not the rule.

This year’s team, a team characterized by its response to adversity, shows signs that it is beginning to understand Berenson's need to protect it.

Over winter break, senior walk-on Eric Elmblad knew he needed to meet with the coach. He made his way to the Berenson's office, but this conversation wouldn't be about the NHL or professional hockey or anything about the sport in general. Elmblad just wanted some advice about how to succeed in life — away from the rink — so he went to the man who he knew had the answers.

The coach told him to make sure to use all of the resources around him at Michigan, explaining all the steps he took to succeed after his time at Michigan. Of course Elmblad, an engineering major, would have loved to have a career in the NHL; hockey was, after all, his first love. But a career in the big leagues wasn't in the cards for him. Of anyone, having worked from day one just to preserve his spot on the team, he understood the coach's advice all along.

"Coach talks about that life after hockey all the time," Elmblad tells me. "This program is not about becoming a better hockey player — you’re going to be a better hockey player no matter what. He wants you to get those attributes that will help you be better in life."

Chris Fox spent a little over a year trying to make it in the NHL after his senior season, but a serious injury made his shot at the NHL an afterthought, as well.

But it was the next 11 years, four in Michigan’s medical school and seven as a neurosurgery resident, that would prove to cement Fox in Berenson’s mind as a model of the ideal Michigan hockey player.

“He was kind of a surrogate parent for all of us,” Fox said. “Without him, a lot of us wouldn’t be where we are today. I wouldn’t be a neurosurgery resident, I wouldn’t have the kind of personal success I had in my life without Red.”

**

It was an autumn Sunday in 2006 and Gordie Berenson, son of the coach, could no longer bear to continue blowing leaves out of his yard.

Gordie decided to take a break on his ATV, despite the fact that he wasn’t much of a trail rider. But there was a nearly 6-mile run spanning dirt roads in the area, and Gordie just couldn’t resist.

And as the trail neared its end, Gordie could see his house within sight, a few hundred yards away.

That's when Gordie lost control of his Honda and crashed off the dirt trail.

Gordie Berenson’s body began to falter. Helpless and unconscious, Gordie had sustained a serious head injury that would put his life into peril. As he was lifted out by helicopter, the coach was alerted to his son’s condition and told that he would need major brain surgery just to survive through the night.

The coach knew there wasn’t much time, and he wasn’t a man used to things being outside of his control. So he called the only person he could trust in this situation to save his son's fragile life.

He called Chris Fox.

Fox was spending his Sunday night at home when he answered a call from the University of Michigan emergency room. He wasn’t on-call, so he knew it could only be bad news.

“Coach Berenson’s son is in the ER. We thought you’d want to know,” the voice on the other line told him.

“I’ll be there in five minutes,” he responded, heading out the door.

As he entered the emergency room that night, Fox experienced a transformation. All the adversity he had been through in his time at Michigan, all the struggles to find his role as a Wolverine, they were all leading up to this moment.

With two doctors on the case, the process to start Gordie's surgery was expedited, giving him a much better chance of survival. But when it came time for the procedure, Fox knew that he was too invested in the case to perform the surgery.

So while Gordie lay on the operating table, Chris Fox sat with the entire Berenson family, who had been in town to watch the coach accept an award the next day.

Fox tried to keep their spirits up. But even he wasn’t sure if Gordie would wake up from the surgery. And if he did, he could never guarantee to them that Gordie would be the same. Gordie’s sisters, both nurses who spent time at the University, prepared their family for the worst-case scenario.

But Red Berenson was just thankful to have someone he trusted nearby, someone he had spent countless hours trying to make into a man, someone who understood that he was no longer the shepherd, he was a member of the flock.

That Tuesday, the third day after Gordie’s accident, the young Berenson regained consciousness in his hospital bed. He didn’t remember anything after losing control on the path late Sunday night, but all of his motor skills were still intact.

Fox and the Michigan medical team had saved his life.

Berenson still gloats to his players today about one of the purest Michigan Men he knows, the one who heeded his advice and overcame adversity to do something more than just play hockey.

“Maize and blue is in my veins,” Fox says. “And to have this all come full circle with Gordie and the Berenson’s there as a family, it was the least I could ever do for Coach Berenson. It could’ve gone either way, and we had a great outcome. It’s a small, small piece of how I could repay him — a man who changed my life.

Fox had found the role he was supposed to play all along.

“There were some issues during his career,” Gordie tells me last month, completely recovered from his accident. “But the fact that he stayed four years, won two national titles, goes on to medical school and to get involved by helping save my life, it’s really special to me every time I see him. Him filling that role and getting involved in his coach’s life — it saved my life.”

**

The coach is in a good mood today, a week removed from his team’s unprecedented and unexpected run to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

He grips his coffee, always in its glass mug, like he has in every other meeting we’ve had to this point.

I spot something beside his desk that I've never seen before — a picture tacked up to his bulletin board of a bearded, shirtless man, grinning widely in a long wooden canoe. The man looks like he’s at home.

“That’s me in 1972,” the coach says later. The photo was taken on his annual canoe trip, which he still takes to this day. I ask him if he’s ever grown out a beard like that since then, he says no and springs into a conversation about how today’s NHL players give a bad impression with their playoff beards. He’s still the same coach.

According to most of his players and fellow coaches, the 70-year-old is far from acting his age. Some even venture to say he’s in better shape than many of his players. There’s also wide consensus that his backhand is by far the best on the team.

“I think he could go for another 10 years,” Caporusso tells me.

It’s been 26 years since he took over a struggling program. Twenty-six years since he had to stand out on the Diag just to sell tickets to fans and convince them to support the hockey program.

He gestures to another picture behind his desk, it’s of him and two other men, one I recognize as Don Canham. It’s from the first day he took over for John Giordano, Michigan's last coach before him.

“If someone would’ve told me then it would’ve taken five years to get this team back on it’s feet, I don’t know if I would’ve taken the job,” he jokes, dryly.

But it’s 26 years after that photo was taken, and Red Berenson has gotten pretty comfortable.

Now, instead of signing on long-term, the coach has signed one-year contracts, meeting with associate athletic director Mike Stevenson to discuss his future. His meeting to decide on next season should take place soon.

Those close to him insist they have no idea how long he’ll stick around Yost Ice Arena. Gordie contends that even the coach’s wife, Joy, has no concept of when his hockey career will end.

“There’s a time,” Berenson tells me. “I’m getting closer to the time. I don’t know when that time is, but it’s not far away. And maybe a year like this would make it tougher to enjoy the job. But still, I think we’re still doing the right thing here.

“They know I won’t stay here forever.”

Immediately after the Wolverines' run ended in the NCAA Midwest Regional in Fort Wayne, Ind. just weeks ago, Elmblad, the walk-on who hadn't appeared in a game all season long, approached the coach. He grabbed his large, weathered hand and shook it, looking him straight in the eyes as if to thank him for the four years that Elmblad had worked his entire life for.

It didn't matter that the walk-on had played very little in his college hockey career. According to him, he had earned something much more valuable in his four years at Michigan than simply time on the ice.

Less than a week later, Elmblad stood at the podium in front of a packed room at the Sheraton Four Points hotel for the team's end-of-the-year banquet. Of the five graduating seniors, Elmblad was the only one without prospects in professional hockey.

Looking out across the banquet room, tears ran down Elmblad's face. So many people had helped him get to this podium, he stood silent for a brief moment, overwhelmed by the realization.

But as his goodbye speech came to an emotional crescendo, Elmblad looked in the direction of the coach: his surrogate father, his mentor, his confidant.

The coach, Gordon "Red" Berenson, was and would always be the face of the Michigan hockey program, a program which had given Elmblad, as it had for Fox, something he would have never received anywhere else.

"Thank you, coach," Elmblad said. "For making me a Michigan Man."

Printed from www.michigandaily.com on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:52:19 -0400

Gordie Howe . . . Mr. Hockey.

Gregg Drinnan's Blog April 11 2011


As the NHL playoffs get started, let’s take a look back at Jim Murray's column on the legendary Gordie Howe. Mr. Hockey helped his teams to four Stanley Cup victories. He made an NHL all-star team a whopping 23 times in his nearly four decades of playing.

His list of achievements as a player are monumental:

• Top five in NHL scoring for 20 consecutive seasons
• Most games played for a single franchise (1,687, Detroit Red Wings)
• Most goals and points with a single franchise (786 and 1,809, respectively, Detroit)
• Most NHL games played (1,767)
• Oldest NHL player at time of retirement (52), and oldest player to play in an NHL game, also only player to play in the NHL after age 50
• Only player to play in the NHL in five different decades (1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s)

MARCH 14, 1968 SPORTS
Copyright 1968/THE TIMES MIRROR COMPANY

JIM MURRAY

Here's How to Gordie!

You ask a Canadian about Gordie Howe and the first thing he does is take his hat off and place it carefully over his heart. His eyes film up, this lump comes to his throat, and you get the eerie feeling that Citizen Howe is at least one of the 12 Apostles. He wasn't born, he was found in the bulrushes.

There may be some things Gordie Howe can't do better than anyone else who ever lived, but you have to check through the late pages of the Spalding Guide to find out what it is. I mean to say, no one ever checked him out on skittles, horseshoe pitching, the luge or the kayak pairs competition.

If you do it on ice, he's a mortal cinch. He is, by common consent, the greatest hockey player who ever lived — Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, Red Grange, Sandy Koufax, Ty Cobb and Jack Dempsey all rolled into one.

Boxing? He's undefeated, and about 40 lifetime KOs ahead of Cassius Clay. No one ever hollered "Fake!" after one of his fights. How do you fake a broken jaw?

Golf? Well, his game has suffered a little because of an off-season job. Arnold Palmer might have to give him a stroke. He's clear up to a three handicap because of the layoff.

Baseball? Well, he worked out with the Detroit Tigers once and legend has it he drove two starting pitchers into retirement and had three American League managers standing in a puddle of drool.

Fishing? He hooked into the first five sailfish he ever saw and boated all of them. If you're watching "The American Sportsman" on TV one of these weeks, he'll be the one netting all the trout.

He tried skiing last winter. He's not quite as good as Jean-Claude Killy. It took him one whole day before he was skiing the cornices.

He's been on more ice than a polar bear. He's the most durable hockey player who ever lived. He was on an operating table once at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and on the ice at 8 that night. Around the league, they say if Gordie Howe died, he might miss three days. He plays 40 of the 60 minutes of every game and holds the all-time record for games (1,467) and years (22) and goals (682).

He wasn't born on skates but, unlike most babies, he didn't learn to walk, he learned to skate. The first time he put shoes on, he fell down.

He leads the game in everything but penalties. It's not that he's that extraordinarily clean. He's just like an old rubber-hose cop. He knows how to hurt a guy without it showing or getting caught at it.

Now, on the verge of 40 (March 31 he makes it), he's like the old opera singer who doesn't try to break the chandeliers with every not any more. But the younger players still approach him as if he were wired and ticking. He's also like an old slugger who waits for his pitch. He doesn't shoot on a goal until he's close enough to hear the goalkeeper begin to sob. Much of the time he tries to pretend he's just a guy out for a few figure eights in the park on a Sunday afternoon. Then, all of a sudden, he becomes a red blur and lights the red light.

He did it for the Detroit Red Wings against the Kings at the Forum the other night. The Kings had a one-goal lead. There were only 32 seconds left in the period. Everyone relaxed when Gordie Howe went flat on his face. Raising himself thoughtfully to one elbow, he carefully flicked the tying goal past a goalkeeper who acted as if he had just been scored on by a guy in the third-row seats. As the goalie skated disconsolately off, a fan comforted him. "Son, he said, "never take your eyes off Gordie Howe on ice till the coroner tells you." In Canada, they feel even that may be too soon.

True Grit
By Jonah Lehrer
ESPN The Magazine

This story appears in the April 18, 2011 issue of ESPN The Magazine.

The ball is snapped. The quarterback drops back, immediately surrounded by a chorus of grunts and groans, the sounds of linemen colliding. The play has just begun, but the pocket is already collapsing around him. He must focus his eyes downfield on his receivers and know where they're going while also reading the ­defense. Is that cornerback blitzing or dropping back? When will the safety leave the middle? The QB has fewer than three seconds to make sense of this mess. If he hesitates, even for a split second, he'll get sacked.

No other team sport is so dependent on the judgment of a single player, which is why NFL scouts and coaches take the decision-making skills of quarterbacks very seriously. Since the early 1970s, when Cowboys coach Tom Landry began using the Wonderlic intelligence test to evaluate potential Dallas players, the league has included it at the annual scouting combine, to assess every player entering the draft. Basically a short version of an IQ test, the Wonderlic is 12 minutes long and consists of 50 questions, which get progressively harder. The underlying assumption is that players with high scores (read: smarter) will make better decisions in the pocket. If a quarterback can solve pre-algebra problems quickly, then he'll be more likely to find his man while getting blitzed.

At first, this seems like a logical assumption. Just think of all the cognitive skills required to become a successful QB. He needs to memorize hundreds of offensive plays and dozens of defensive formations. He has to study game tape. And, in many instances, quarterbacks are responsible for changing the play at the line of scrimmage. This helps explain why NFL teams start to get nervous whenever the Wonderlic scores of a QB in the draft fall below 24, the unofficial average for the position. (In comparison, the average score for computer programmers is 29 while janitors score 15, a point below running backs.) Scouts believe a quarterback who isn't smart, at least by this measure, won't be able to handle the mental rigors of the game.

There's only one problem with this way of thinking: It's completely wrong. Many of the most successful quarterbacks in NFL history reportedly had subpar Wonderlic results. Donovan McNabb scored a 14 and Brett Favre a 22, while Randall Cunningham, Dan Marino and Terry Bradshaw each scored 15. What's more, several QBs who had unusually high marks -- guys like Alex Smith and Matt Leinart, who scored 40 and 35, and were top-10 picks in their respective drafts -- have struggled in the NFL, largely because they make poor decisions on the field. "People obsess over the stuff they can measure," says former NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst Tim Hasselbeck (Wonderlic score: 23). "We spend all this time talking about Wonderlic scores and results from the combine, but those numbers miss most of what's going on."

While they found that Wonderlic scores play a large role in determining when QBs are selected in the draft -- the only equally important variables are height and the 40-yard dash -- the metric proved all but useless in predicting performance. The only correlation the researchers could find suggested that higher Wonderlic scores actually led to slightly worse QB performance, at least during rookie years.

Consider a recent study by economists David Berri and Rob Simmons. While they found that Wonderlic scores play a large role in determining when QBs are selected in the draft -- the only equally important variables are height and the 40-yard dash -- the metric proved all but useless in predicting performance. The only correlation the researchers could find suggested that higher Wonderlic scores actually led to slightly worse QB performance, at least during rookie years. In other words, intelligence (or, rather, measured intelligence), which has long been viewed as a prerequisite for playing QB, would seem to be a disadvantage for some guys. Although it's true that signal-callers must grapple with staggering amounts of complexity, they don't make sense of questions on an intelligence test the same way they make sense of the football field. The Wonderlic measures a specific kind of thought process, but the best QBs can't think like that in the pocket. There isn't time.

So how, then, do they make their decisions? Turns out, every pass play is a pure demonstration of human feeling. Scientists have in recent years discovered that emotions, which are often dismissed as primitive and unreliable, can in fact reflect a vast amount of information processing. In many instances, our feelings are capable of responding to things we're not even aware of, noticing details we don't register on a conscious level. Let's say you're given information about how 20 different stocks have performed over a period of time. (Their share prices are displayed on a ticker at the bottom of a TV screen.) If somebody asks you which stocks performed best, you'll probably be unable to give a good answer; there's just way too much financial data to keep track of. But if you're asked which stocks trigger the best feelings -- now it's your emotional brain that's being quizzed -- you'll suddenly be able to identify the top stocks. According to Tilmann Betsch, the psychologist who performed this experiment, your emotions will "reveal a remarkable degree of sensitivity" to the actual performance of the shares. The investments that rose in value will be associated with the most positive emotions, while those that fell will trigger a vague sense of unease.

This exercise captures why it's so important for quarterbacks to rely on their feelings and not their analytical intelligence. Open targets are associated with the most positive emotions, just like those upward-trending stocks. "QBs are tested on every single pass play," Hasselbeck says. "To be good at the position, you've got to know the answer before you even understand the question. You've got to be able to glance at a defense and recognize what's going on. And you've got to be able to do that when the left tackle gets beat and you're running away from a big lineman. That ability might not depend on real IQ, but it sure takes a lot of football IQ."

How QBs develop a more effective emotional brain is the question teams should be asking. The simple answer: work. Expertise requires lots of effort and repetition. K. Anders Ericsson, a psychologist at Florida State, studies expertise. Ericsson acknowledges the role of genetic gifts (physical and mental skills are not distributed equally at birth), but he believes that the overwhelming majority of expertise is earned. "There is virtually no evidence that expertise is due to genetic or innate factors," Ericsson says. "Rather, it strongly suggests that expertise requires huge amounts of effort and practice." This is because it takes time to train our feelings, to embed those useful patterns into the brain. Before a quarterback can find the open man, parsing the defense in a glance, he must spend years studying cornerbacks and crossing routes. It looks easy only because he's worked so hard.

"I think the willingness to put in the hours is the most important thing for succeeding in the NFL," says Gil Brandt, former Cowboys vice president of player personnel and current draft analyst for NFL.com. "When you look at the best QBs -- guys like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees -- what you see is that they work harder than anyone else. Their work ethic is what makes them great."

In recent years, Ericsson has become known for his calculation that true expertise in various fields, from QBs to cello players, requires about 10,000 hours of what he calls "deliberate practice." And deliberate practice is not fun.

It's not casual scrimmages or a game of catch in the backyard. Instead, it's a disciplined attempt to improve specific skills. For a quarterback, this might involve spending the weekend throwing hundreds of footballs through an old car tire while moving to the left or working for months on a few steps of footwork. Consider Peyton and Eli Manning. It would be easy to conclude that the brothers have some yet-to-be-discovered quarterback gene, a snippet of DNA that makes them suited for the pocket. (For what it's worth, Eli reportedly scored 39 on the Wonderlic, Peyton a 28.) In reality, according to Ericsson's model of expertise, the Mannings have excelled in the pros because they began throwing the football as toddlers, racking up hours of deliberate practice at an age when most kids haven't even touched a pigskin. It also didn't hurt that their father, Archie Manning, was a former NFL passer who provided them with invaluable instruction. Peyton and Eli weren't born with the ability to read defenses and throw a perfect spiral. Those "instincts" come only from a lifetime of training.

So, if talent comes from intuition, and reliable intuition comes from practice, then the trait that teams should really be measuring is how recruits practice. And the question they should be asking is, Why are some quarterbacks so much better at getting better? This notion of practice led Ericsson to collaborate with Angela Duckworth, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. Duckworth is best known for her work on grit, a character trait that allows people to persist in the face of difficulty. A few years ago, she was commissioned by the Army to measure the grittiness of cadets at West Point. Although the academy is highly selective, about 5 percent of cadets drop out after the first summer of training, known as Beast Barracks. The Army has long searched for the variables that predict which cadets will graduate, but it wasn't until Duckworth tested them using a short questionnaire -- consisting of statements such as "Setbacks don't discourage me" or "I am diligent" -- that the Army found a measurement that actually worked. Duckworth has since repeated the survey with subsequent West Point classes, and the results are always the same: The cadets who graduate are the ones with grit.

In a new paper, Duckworth and Ericsson demonstrate that grit doesn't only keep people from dropping out, but it's also what allows them to become experts, to put in the hours of deliberate practice. The researchers tracked 190 participants at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The first thing they discovered is that deliberate practice works. Student spellers who spent more time studying alone and memorizing words with the help of note cards performed much better than kids who were quizzed by friends or engaged in leisure reading. Duckworth and Ericsson also found that levels of grit determined how much the spellers were willing to practice. Grittier kids were able to engage in the most useful kinds of self-improvement, which is why they performed at a higher level. Woody Allen famously declared, "Eighty percent of success is showing up." And grit is what allows you to show up, again and again and again.

"I'd bet that there isn't a single highly successful person who hasn't depended on grit," says Duckworth. "Nobody is talented enough to not have to work hard, and that's what grit allows you to do. It lets you take advantage of your potential." For successful quarterbacks, grit is what allows them to watch hours of game tape on Monday mornings. It lets them remain in the weight room after everyone else has gone home. It's why they can practice the right way, not just the easy way. "In order to become a professional athlete, you need a certain kind of obsessiveness," Duckworth says. "You've got to devote your life to the development of this very narrow expertise. It shouldn't be surprising that this takes lots of grit."

“ In order to become a professional athlete, you need a certain kind of obsessiveness. You've got to devote your life to the development of this very narrow expertise. It shouldn't be surprising that this takes lots of grit.” -- U of Penn psychologist Angela Duckworth

The problem for the NFL is that instead of measuring grit, teams still subscribe to an antiquated model of talent and expertise in which innate gifts are presumed to matter the most. The scouting combine requires players entering the draft to perform a number of short physical and mental tasks (40-yard dash, Wonderlic, three-cone drill, bench-press reps, vertical jump) referred to by psychologists as "maximal measurements," since they measure people who are highly motivated to perform for short bursts of time. But to understand why those maximal tests at the combine don't predict performance in the pros, we must return to the nature of expertise. As Ericsson and Duckworth demonstrate, the most important kind of talent, emotional IQ, depends on measurements of sustained performance, on being able to engage in endless amounts of deliberate practice.

"Maybe they say he's too short or too slow or has a weak arm," Brandt says, "but the reality is that if a quarterback has the right work ethic, then he can probably make up for those problems." He points again to Brees, who wasn't drafted until the second round, and Brady, who was ignored until the sixth. "That's because teams have been looking at all the wrong things," Brandt says. "Just because you can measure it doesn't mean it matters."

Measuring grit does matter, but it's not easy. Grit can't be evaluated in a single afternoon; by definition, it's a metric of personality that involves performance over long periods of time. People don't reveal grit at the combine; they show it when no one else is around. "What coaches need is a way to test how players will perform over the entire season," Duckworth says. "Do they have what it takes to make themselves better? Will they benefit from criticism and feedback? If I were a coach, those are the questions I would care about."

So where is all this heading? How will grit become a bigger part of the scouting equation? The first step is to finally acknowledge that maximal tests aren't effective. "I really see the Wonderlic as a reading test," says former NFL executive Michael Lombardi, now with the NFL Network. "Until we get a better test, teams are just going to have to evaluate players the old-fashioned way, by watching them play in actual games. It takes good instincts to be a QB. Maybe it takes good instincts to find one, too."

Hasselbeck suggests that teams pay more attention to the fundamentals of college quarterbacks, since their passing mechanics are often a window into how much grit they possess. "You know these guys have been coached for years," he says. "So if you see a QB with flawed fundamentals, you gotta wonder what's wrong. Is he coachable? Will he work to improve? Because that's important. You can teach a kid to throw the ball, but only if he wants to learn."

After all, deliberate practice makes perfect.

Jonah Lehrer is the author of, most recently, "How We Decide". You can follow him at his personal website, Jonahlehrer.com.

Travis Paterson: Salmon Kings’ Slap Shot story

Published: April 14, 2011 Oak Bay News


No matter how many sports reporters reference the epic sports flick Slap Shot, it will never wear thin within the hockey community. Yet few real-life circumstances parallel the greatest hockey movie of all time like the Salmon Kings’ current situation.

Recent reports of the major junior Western Hockey League’s Chiliwack Bruins relocating here for the upcoming season signal the end of the Salmon Kings.

The end of the Johnstown Chiefs, too, was imminent, though player-coach Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman) spun the dire situation into a motivating factor for his team.

And so too are the bottom seed Salmon Kings on a roll now winning the final two games in their first round upset of the No. 2 seed Bakersfield Condors.

Game one of the ECHL Western Conference playoff semifinals is tonight (April 15) against the Utah Grizzlies.

So while the team’s future in Victoria is likely to end, not much will change for the players trying to further their careers with a contract in 2011-12 -- be it with the ECHL Florida Everblades or AHL Abbotsford Heat.

And with that I present a cheat sheet for fans jumping on the Salmon Kings’ bandwagon.

Here are a few of the Slap Shot characters and Salmon Kings alter-egos.

Goalie Denis Lemieux:

While playing in the ECHL, David Shantz also takes online courses through McMasters University. Needless to say, the cerebral 25-year-old takes more of a philosopher’s approach to the game, a la Ken Dryden. That said, there is no escaping his Slap Shot equivalent as the Chief’s heavily-accented goalie Denis Lemieux.

• What Lemieux would say about the conditional sale of the WHL Bruins to unnamed owners (despite all fingers pointing to Victoria’s RG Properties):

“Who own da Bruins? Somebody own da Bruins!”

Dave ‘Killer’ Carlson:

The closest personification to Carlson, the meditative youngster who adores Dunlop, might be Tommy Maxwell.

Maxwell has scrapped with the best of them in the AHL, and is one of the toughest hockey players going, period.

But Maxwell’s on-ice discipline is tempered by a desire to win. Sent down from Victoria’s parent club, Maxwell’s humble acceptance as a role-player on an ECHL team mirrors that of Carlson, who finds guidance from the mythical Swami Baha, a meditative and spiritual leader.

• What Maxwell might be muttering while deciding not to clobber an opponent who just gave Salmon Kings’ ace playmaker Rob Hennigar a cheap shot:

“I’m one with the universe, one with the universe.”

Reggie Dunlop:

This one’s a toss-up between coach and general manager Mark Morrison and wily vet Adam Taylor, with Taylor taking the edge.

A healthy scratch on several occasions this season (but not in the playoffs), Taylor made his way to the commentator’s booth for most games.

While on the air, however, Taylor refrained from placing a bounty on an opposing player, which Dunlop famously did in his movie radio spot.

Taylor has, however, played for two Florida-based teams (Pensacola Ice Pilots and Florida Everblades). The idea was floated by Dunlop to local reporter Dickie Dunn to excite the Chiefs.

• What Dunlop said: “They’re gettin’ a bunch of old geezers down there from the northeast … what do you think those old geezers really miss in Florida?”

• What Taylor might have said: “I heard there’s a bunch of diehard hockey fans in Chilliwack ... they’ll be looking for a championship ECHL team.”

To paraphrase the words of Ned Braden during a radio promo for his team, “I know a lot of kids would enjoy coming to the games to see (some great hockey players, like Taylor, Maxwell and Shantz) skate.

Tickets to see the Salmon Kings start at just $5.

Travis Paterson is the sports reporter for Black Press papers in Greater Victoria

NHL players who ignore concussion symptoms pay a steep price: U of C study

Largest concussion study ever conducted in professional hockey

By Vicki Hall, Calgary Herald April 18, 2011



Hockey players may think they’re taking one for the team by soldiering on through a concussion, but the numbers tell a different story.

According to a landmark University of Calgary study published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, 27 per cent of National Hockey Leaguers who play in spite of a concussion – for whatever reason, without in-game medical examination – ended up missing more than 10 days of action.

On average, concussed players recuperated for six days before receiving medical clearance to return to the lineup.

“That’s what the data shows,” says lead author Dr. Brian Benson, a researcher and physician at the Sport Medicine Centre in the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Kinesiology.

“Those players who ignore the symptoms and continue to play may potentially have a more severe injury and take longer to recover.

“We need to educate all involved in the sport — including players, coaches, management, physicians, medical staff. Certainly, the players should report symptoms to the medical staff and not continue to play while symptomatic.”

The warning comes during the opening round of the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs minus Sidney Crosby, who is believed to have suffered a concussion in the Winter Classic on New Year’s Day. The Pittsburgh Penguins captain — arguably the best player on the planet — absorbed another head blow in his next game and hasn’t played since.

“That’s a sure sign of how early on in understanding post-concussion we really are,” says Keith Primeau, a 14-year NHL veteran who was forced to retire due to post-concussion syndrome. “Crosby was not diagnosed with a concussion. At the time, he didn’t show signs of a concussion or he felt well enough to ignore them. And then he returned to play and has ended up missing four months on a far less physical hit.

“It’s nobody’s fault. No one made a mistake. We just don’t completely understand the injury.”

In a more recent example of players soldiering on after tough head hits, during Sunday night's game between the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks, Raffi Torres delivered a controversial shoulder-to-head hit on Brent Seabrook.

Seabrook took two more shifts after the Torres collision and was hit two more times before leaving to be assessed under the league's new concussion protocol.

The U of C researchers — in conjunction with the NHL and the NHL Players Association – compiled reports from every team doctor in the league from 1997 to 2004 in the largest concussion study ever conducted in professional hockey.

Post-lockout data from 2006 to 2011 is slated for release later this year.

In practical terms, researchers found four warning signs at the time of the head trauma that lead to extended time on the sidelines: headache, amnesia or memory loss, low energy or fatigue and an abnormal neurological exam.

“Concussion severity to date has only been able to be determined after the injury is fully recovered,” Benson says. “You look back in time and you say, `OK, they missed this much time lost.’ The symptoms lasted this long.

“This study is unique, because it adds a prognostic factor with regards to concussion severity at the time of injury.”

Just last month, the NHL instituted a new protocol for head injuries. Players suspected of having a concussion are removed from the game and sent to a quiet place free from distraction so the on-site team doctor can examine them.

In the past, the trainer or a doctor on the bench initially evaluated a player suspected of having sustained a concussion.

“The league now has the rule where every suspected concussion needs to be evaluated by the medical staff,” Benson says. “If they highlight or note any of these factors, certainly the red flag should go up.”

Primeau applauds the researchers for pinpointing the four symptoms, but warns against players feeling they are OK if they have no headache, memory loss, fatigue or an abnormal neurological exam.

“I wouldn’t disagree with the fact those are four very common symptoms,’ he says. “But I also know through the course of my ordeal – and speaking to other players who suffered post-concussion – that no two concussions are alike.

“We shouldn’t negate other symptoms, I think that would be dangerous.”

Other highlights of the study include:

— The number of reported concussions actually dropped during the study period from 7.7 concussions per 100 players during the 2001-02 season to 4.9 per 100 players in 2003-04.

— The number of days lost per concussion increased slightly over the seven-year period. “That can be for several reasons,” Benson says. “Either the injury itself is getting more severe or team physicians are being more conservative in their management. There’s some speculation and suggestion that players are bigger, stronger and faster — and the increased force is transmitted to the brain. It’s all speculative, but certainly a possibility.”

— Concussions do indeed get worse over time. For every recurrent concussion sustained over the study period, a player faces 2.25 increase in time lost. “I lived that,” says Primeau, who battled on for the Philadelphia Flyers after suffering two concussions in the 2004 playoffs, only to miss 73 games the following season. “Trust me. You don’t want to wake up every morning with a headache. It’s not a good feeling, and it’s real. I guess I’ll always know that I damaged my brain.”

What if Sid the Kid can't play anymore?

Sun May 1, 2011 Gregg Drinnan


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.)

Primeau wants to end concussion epidemic

By Mike Ganter, Toronto Sun, May4, 2011


Former NHLer Keith Primeau joined other athletes for the launch of - www.stopconcussions.com - devoted to concussions information at the Hockey Hall of Fame in downtown Toronto on Wednesday May 4, 2011.



Keith Primeau doesn’t have a few reasons to jump into this concussion epidemic the world is sports is immersed in.

He has dozens, even hundreds when you really consider it.

There are the four documented concussions he personally suffered that prematurely ended his NHL career. Those alone would suffice but Primeau, the former Detroit Red Wing and Philadelphia Flyer, isn’t doing this for himself.

His concussions have already taken their toll and will continue to do so. He knows that and accepts it. The headaches and vision problems that come and go are a constant reminder.

Another few good reasons are his youngest sons who are 11 and 13 and who he coaches in Philadelphia. He wants them — and the 13 or so other kids on those teams that he feels personally responsible for — to avoid what he has gone through. Primeau doesn’t want any of them or any other kid to suffer what he did and what he continues to suffer due to those concussions.

It is for these reasons and all those others that Primeau has teamed up with Kerry Goulet — a fine hockey player in his own right who has had his own war with concussions and the depression those concussions brought about while playing hockey in Germany — to create stopconcussions.com, an information network for just about everything concussion-related.

They unveiled the program Wednesday at the Hockey Hall of Fame with some help from other former and current sports professionals including former NHLers Mike Van Ryn and Jim Thompson, National women’s team hockey gold medallist Tessa Bonhomme, former Saskatchewan Roughriders and future Chicago Bears receiver Andy Fantuz, and former men’s national team soccer player Jason De Vos.

All were there to help get the word out about stopconcussions.com. It is for the players who sustain concussions, the parents looking for answers about managing them, the coaches and trainers who have to deal with them and even the medical people who treat them.

Eventually, Primeau and Goulet hope to change the mindset in sports that lauds the kind of hit that leaves a guy lying motionless on the ice or on the field. They want to change the thinking that says it’s an act of courage to shake off a hit to the head and “get back in the game.”

It’s a tall order and both men know it, but the alternative — doing nothing and watching more and more young athletes fall victims to the unknowns of a concussion like they both experienced — is just too painful for either man.

Primeau knows what needs to be changed. He’s seen it first-hand while coaching his sons.

“The parent who when their kid gets hit and I have him sitting on the bench, comes and taps on the glass behind me and says ‘Get him back out there,’ ” Primeau says. “And here I am still waiting to assess whether he’s in a position to return to play because it’s not that important to me that he get right back on the ice.”

Goulet, whose second concussion landed him in a depression that without extensive medical rehab could have cost him his life, believes recent events — from the Mikhail Grabovski apparent concussion after which he re-entered the game to score the winning goal in February to the back-to-back concussions suffered by Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby — have brought the issue to a head.

“I believe we’ve reached a tipping point,” Goulet said. “Sidney Crosby (and his decision to sit out the Penguins playoff games) I believe helped tremendously. But I’ve been working on this for five years and really until the Grabovski hit we weren’t taken as seriously. We were shunned a little bit because people thought we wanted to take the physicality out of the sport. Nobody wants that. What we want to do is say, “Listen. You have to play smart. You have one brain and if it’s broken it’s not coming back. All we’re asking people to do is educate themselves and establish the way you are going to play the game and how you can play hard.”

As Goulet said, “There are just far too many kids going to bed tonight with concussions that are undiagnosed.”

Why one scientist is looking at former NHLers brains

James Mirtle - Toronto— Globe and Mail Blog - Posted on Friday, May 6, 2011

Last week, the NHL's alumni association announced it had formed a partnership with one of the world’s top neuroscience centres, the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest in Toronto, to study up to 100 former players for signs of mental health changes as they age.

The study will involve analyzing former NHLers’ brains with in-depth cognitive tests and magnetic resonance imaging, a process that will be completed for every participant every three years with the hopes that results can be produced two or three years from now.

I sat down with Baycrest senior scientist Brian Levine yesterday to talk about the study, with the results of our Q&A below. He said what he is attempting to do is answer the question of "Does playing in the NHL affect your brain health later in life?"

Q: What prompted Baycrest to get involved with NHL Alumni and study their brains?

BL: We already do a lot of work in aging and my work in addition to aging and dementia includes head injuries and brain imaging. Baycrest has had this long-standing involvement already with NHL Alumni for fundraising and the Gordie and Colleen Howe Fund. It was very natural for the connection of hey why don't we take the opportunity, let's get together and involve them in our research.

Q: Do you have any idea what you might find in closely examining former players' brains?

BL: A lot of times we do a study and we have a hypothesis, we have a really strong idea of what we're going to find. I'm characterizing this as more of an exploratory study. We have a pretty good idea of the factors involved in brain health. We don't know how they all interact.

Diet, exercise, taking care of yourself, stress, all of those things affect brain health. We know that head injuries are related to brain health, especially as they relate to aging. We know that genetics is related to brain health. There's now recent research showing that there are certain genes that increase the chance of getting dementia if you've had a head injury. They interact. So the risk is even greater.

This is an opportunity for us to put all of these things together in a set of high-performance athletes and analyze all of these factors together.

Q: Some of the NHL Alumni seem skeptical that head injuries are tied to developing dementia and other later issues. What do you think the study might show?

BL: As a scientist, we leave our expectations and our biases at the door. Our goal really is to get at the best version or the closest to the truth as possible. I know that there is skepticism [from some players]. There’s also groups that say there is a connection.

We try to answer the question as best we can without any kind of preconception or bias. That's why we're being very comprehensive in our testing. One hypothesis is that if you've been banged around a lot and knocked out a few times, it might affect your brain health in the future. Well, there's some evidence to support that and there's some case studies out there that are very dramatic that we've heard about.

But not everyone that gets dementia has had a head injury in their past. So we really want to get the full range of factors.

Q: It could be there's no relation between playing in the NHL and these later issues?

BL: That's why we do the research. If we knew the answer in advance, there'd be no point in doing it.

Q: Are there other similar studies that have pointed you in a direction with your own approach?

BL: There are but there hasn't been anything that I know of that's that comprehensive and longitudinal. This is a long-term commitment. There's always good quality research coming out that's suggestive and informative, but these are not simple questions and we don't expect there to be a simple answer.

Q: How long will it take to get results from something like this?

BL: There are two ways of doing this kind of research. There's the longitudinal method, where you follow people over time, and there's what we call the cross-sectional method, where you take a group of people, let's say by ages, and you test people in their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. We can do the cross-sectional method now [on former players] and look at people across the age span and I think get some pretty good results within say two, three years. Just give us enough time to collect the data, analyze it. That will give us some preliminary answers.

There will always be a limitation in that, which is people will say you're comparing an 85-year-old guy that played without a helmet, had a whole different life and lived in a whole different context, to a 60-year-old guy. We acknowledge those limitations and that's why we do the longitudinal study, which is much more of a commitment to do.

We're doing both. We're studying players, looking between individuals, young and old, and also the control group is important. We also want to know out of people who weren't NHL players, how many of them will develop something? We can do all that, rapidly, in a cross-sectional study. And then we take everyone and we track them every three years and we watch them over time.

Q: Is this something you believe will be maintained with the NHL Alumni over decades?

BL: Yes, I do. That's the idea. We feel we can get results that will be very informative and important because of what we're doing in two, three years. But the longitudinal aspect will give us even higher quality data over time.

Q: What do you think of all of the coverage of concussions in hockey and these issues? Does there need to be more research done?

BL: Of course. I've read what's going on, I follow what's going on and as a scientist, we don't go by what the media says. We pay attention to it, it's intriguing, but that isn't the place we look to for answers in terms of what we think is going on.

There's a lot of guesswork involved. At every stage there's guesswork involved. I don't want to criticize the media, I don't want to criticize the NHL. I’m just a scientist that sees an interesting question and that gets me excited. Let’s answer this question. That's really exciting.

YOUR CALL: WHAT ROLE SHOULD INTEGRITY PLAY IN THE PLAYOFFS?

TSN.CA STAFF 5/9/2011


'Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing.'

'If you aren't cheating, you aren't trying.'

Those are just two sayings people use to justify bending the rules over the course of a contest or a season with the idea that the final goal is most important and any path taken to get there can be justified.

But would you want the team you cheer for to win at all costs?

Vancouver Canucks defenceman Kevin Bieksa might disagree with that premise. Over the course of the second round series between the Canucks and the Nashville Predators, many of Bieksa's teammates have been accused of play acting or faking hurt in order to draw penalties.

Ryan Kesler, for example, was accused of 'chicken-winging' Shea Weber's stick and was able to earn a hooking penalty on his opponent. Goaltender Roberto Luongo was accused of pretending to be clipped by Jerred Smithson's stick and Maxim Lapierre was also caught on camera faking contact.

"When Smithson got the penalty he just moved his stick over Luongo," said Nashville coach Barry Trotz. "All of a sudden, his stick goes to the other side, (Luongo's) head kicks back and he gets a penalty. To me, as I said in the last series, that's gamesmanship and I understand that.

"But it's also putting the referees in a tough spot. We have the best referees and if you are going to make them look bad I don't think that's needed in the game."

Bieksa, speaking to a Vancouver newspaper, warned his teammates that while they are playing by the rules, there should be more honour in victory.

"It's not cheating," Bieksa told the Vancouver Province. "It's within the rules and if the referee wants to assess it, he can penalize you for it. It's not cheating but it is a matter of integrity."

Let us know where you stand.

Is it more important to you that the players you cheer for play 'the right way' or would you rather celebrate a championship no matter the means it takes to get there? And would a title be tarnished if the players on the team you support bent the rules in order to go all the way?

Share your thoughts below and as always, It's Your! Call.

NHL ignoring concussion protocol: former players

May 8, 2011 By Teddy Katz CBC Sports



Several former players are giving the NHL barely a passing grade for its new concussion protocol and how it's working so far in the playoffs.

With the game's best player, Sidney Crosby, out with a concussion for months, the issue has been front and centre this year.

Two months ago, the league said it would more strictly enforce penalties when it comes to head hits - and supplementary discipline to try to reduce headshots.

The league also announced the new protocol. It requires any player suspected of having a concussion to go immediately to a quiet room for 15 minutes to be assessed by the team doctor.

But in the middle of the playoffs, several former players point to a couple of controversial hits as evidence the league isn't living up to its promises.

Exhibit A: Vancouver's Raffi Torres' punishing hit on an unsuspecting Brent Seabrook of Chicago in Round 1.

What happened after, the former players say, is the exact opposite of what is supposed to take place.

The victim (Seabrook) continued playing and didn't even go to the quiet room to be examined.

Seabrook eventually got hit again and was forced to leave the game.

But the player who did the hitting - Torres - continued playing.

And there was no suspension.


Letdown


This concerns Bryan Muir, who won a Stanley Cup with Colorado in 2001.

"Some of the suspensions that were handed out prior to the playoffs were great," Muir says.

He adds: "It was an initiative to say this is where we stand. This is how serious we are on it [headshots]. And then to now follow through in the playoffs with some of the incidents that have happened is a bit of a letdown for me."

The Torres hit isn't the only hit that's left Muir shaking his head.

Exhibit B: Boston's Andrew Ferrence sticks out his shoulder and whacks Montreal's Jeff Halpern in the jaw in Game 6 of their first-round series.

Neither is even close to the puck.

Once again, there's no suspension for Ferrence.

The fans in Boston boo as Halpern slowly makes his way off the ice. They seem more concerned about their player getting a penalty than the other's safety.

This really bothers Wayne Primeau, who has played 14 years in the NHL.

His brother Keith had to retire from the game after a nasty hit left him suffering from concussions for years afterward.

"For sure because this is not a laughing matter ... I mean this is no joke," he says.


Pushing for headshot ban


Keith Primeau is pushing for the NHL to ban all headshots because of the impact it had on his life and other players forced to retire.

He gives the NHL credit for doing something.

But when asked this week to give the new policy a midterm grade out of 10, he says the league is barely passing.

"It's probably about 5 or 6 ... unfortunately they're dealing with it on a case by case basis."

Jim Thomson is even harsher. Thomson played in the NHL in the 1980s and 90s. He was a fighter and suffered several concussions.

Now his biggest fight is to get the NHL to change fast enough.

"A lot of sickens me. We're talking about so many players losing their careers and we're doing nothing about it," he says.

In an e-mail to the CBC, the NHL's deputy commissioner Bill Daly has a different view.

He says there's always going to be debate about suspensions.

But he says the NHL is pleased with how its new concussion protocol is working so far despite the criticism from the former players.

"It is necessarily a work in progress, and I expect that it will continue to be refined and improved as we learn more and have more experience with the protocol in practice," Daly says.

He adds, "But the bottom line is that it has clearly raised awareness and sensitivity at the club level."


Culture change


Still, Thomson says one big thing that needs to change is the culture of players sucking it up and playing through pain when it comes to concussions.

He wasn't surprised to see Seabrook keep playing after taking his big hit. But he was disappointed.

"Surprise me? I mean I went through it. When I played it was like go home, get your roommate to wake you up every two hours and take Advil. I played a whole weekend series I don't remember it."

Thomson says given what's now known about concussions, players like Seabrook have to be thinking about more than just the winning the game.

"Don't tell me he was perfect. He was about repeating as Stanley Cup champion because he's young ... the team needs him. Don't tell me they took safety precautions. They didn't even take him into the quiet room until they finally said we better do this or we're going to get in shit."

In the hunt for the Stanley Cup, players are not completely honest about how they're feeling.

In a recent interview with CBC, Ian Laperierre of the Philadelphia Flyers says he didn't come clean with his doctors in Philadelphia last year.

Early in last year's playoffs, Laperriere got hit in the face with a puck.

He suffered a brain contusion and needed 70 stitches above his right eye.

Hoping to win his first Stanley Cup, the 37-year-old says he wasn't completely honest with the medical staff and came back to play in the semifinals.

"No way, no I lied to them about my symptoms because I wanted to play."

Keefe has coaching chops, plus 30 thoughts

By Elliotte Friedman Posted: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 CBC Sports


It is the league that spawned the coaching careers of Bryan Murray, Jacques Martin, Bob Hartley and Doug MacLean. Last month, it sent another alumnus into the OHL as Todd Gill, who played 1,007 NHL games, joined the Kingston Frontenacs as head coach.

We're talking about the Central Canada Hockey League (formerly the Central Junior Hockey League) and the same team has won its last five championships.

That's the Pembroke Lumber Kings who, on Sunday, advanced to the Royal Bank Cup, emblematic of national junior A supremacy, and won it over the two-time defending champion Vernon Vipers.

It is the first time in 35 years a team from that league won the title, which used to be known as the Centennial Cup.

One man's fingerprints are everywhere. He is Sheldon Keefe - Pembroke's owner, president, governor, general manager and head coach. Keefe moved behind the bench for the 2006-07 season, the first in this record run.

Keefe's is a spectacular resume.

"Kids want to play there," said one person who knows the league very well. "He's done a great job and deserves a lot of credit.

"He gets the most out of his players. I don't doubt for a second that he could be an NHL coach."

Keefe could, in theory, follow Gill's route to the next level. Gill will continue to own the Brockville Braves while coaching Kingston. But Keefe's tremendous success comes with a cloud - he is a David Frost disciple and no one's sure if anyone will take a chance on him.

(Keefe did not respond to an interview request but, in fairness, I'm not certain of his travel plans home from Camrose, Alta., where the RBC Cup was played)

"Maybe he'll be judged on his own merits, not his past," said another observer.

Not yet, I don't think.

The controversial Frost claims he's no longer involved in Pembroke's operations, but the Lumber Kings are full of acolytes. Keefe is one, as are minority owner Larry Barron (he runs a hockey program in Laguna Niguel, Calif., the same city where Frost was discovered this season, plus there is a graduate of the program on the Pembroke roster) and assistant GM/assistant coach Shawn Cation.

There was at least one occasion during his pro career that Keefe was told he was good enough to play, but keeping Frost as an agent wasn't worth it to the organization. He refused to cut the chord.

No one is willing to go on the record about them simply because it's an aggravation to be avoided. One person suggested Keefe is more than content to stay in Pembroke. After all, he's happy, he's successful, he's making money and he doesn't have to face too much of this scrutiny.

That's certainly the safe route.

If he wants to move up, he's probably going to have to distance himself from all of them.

30 THOUGHTS

1) The San Jose Sharks do not discuss front office moves, but hearing Doug Wilson signed a five-year contract extension at some point this season.

2) Known Uptown Hockey agents Don & Todd Reynolds for a long time. Never seen the slightest evidence of anything sinister. Very nice, mild people. I was as astonished as anyone that Todd tweeted Monday: "Very sad to read Sean Avery's misguided support of same-gender 'marriage'. Legal or not, it will always be wrong." It's damaging. Others will use this to poach. "I'm willing to accept that," Todd said Monday night. "I have to stand up for what I believe in." It's a passionate debate with a lack of intelligent reaction on both sides. Will players leave Uptown to avoid aggravation?

3) Could Reynolds represent a player who took Avery's stand? "If this was their personal opinion, yes," Todd said. "But if something was being done in a public position to promote or lobby legislation to change laws ... we would have to sit down and discuss if we should sever our relationship."

4) Interesting: Word is The Raine Group, which is handling the sale of the Atlanta Thrashers for Atlanta Spirit LLC, is telling prospective buyers the team can be moved because having those dates available for other events (ie. concerts) is a better financial option than hockey. Neither a phone call nor a follow-up email were returned by 10 p.m. ET Monday.

5) Speaking of moves, wanted to follow up on my Shane Doan note of a two weeks ago. I stated that if the Phoenix Coyotes moved to Winnipeg, it is believed something would be worked out for Doan to go elsewhere. It is not an anti-Manitoba thing. It is an understanding that his family is strongly tied to the U.S. southwest. Of course, it doesn't look like an issue now.

6) If I was Paul Holmgren, I'd ask Mike Richards if he wanted to drop the "C" for an "A" because the interaction between Richards and the Philly media is painful to watch. Richards takes the questions very personally and everyone might be better off if he did it less often and simply concentrated on playing. This move happened years ago with Eric Desjardins and Keith Primeau and it can happen again with Richards and Chris Pronger.

7) After Philly's elimination, asked Richards if he was bothered by an injury. He said no. Now comes news about a wrist problem that prevented him from taking faceoffs, although he took more than any Flyer except Claude Giroux. The idea that he's overrated is outrageous. Key component on a Memorial Cup champion and Olympic gold medallist.

8) Richards can use Ryan Kesler as proof that you don't need the "C" to be a difference maker and leader.

9) Not sure the Flyers need to go out and get another goalie. Sergei Bobrovsky had a pretty good year for a guy who had zero North American experience and didn't know the language. Would've been better if Philly stuck with him like the Washington Capitals did with Michal Neuvirth. Anyway, better Bobrovsky than wasting money on Ilya Bryzgalov.

10) Think Patrick Marleau is a far better player than he gets credit for. But if he can't go to another level after being called "gutless" by Jeremy Roenick, does he prove Roenick's point?

11) Mathieu Darche told a great story about Kevin Dineen, who coached him in 2008-09. Darche said Dineen told his players: "You will not dive here. I don't care if you get a penalty or not. If you do it, I won't play you." Wish more coaches had the same philosophy.

12) If I were the Vancouver Canucks, I would be worried about this - Chris Kelly may have deserved a penalty, but because Roman Hamrlik was diving so often, there was no call. Big goal to give up in a Game 7.

13) Can we please stop saying "minor concussion?" No such thing.

14) Knew a guy who played Atlantic University hockey. Against UPEI, his coach said: "I don't care about anybody else. We've got to stop Joel Ward." Wonder if Alain Vigneault made the same speech for Game 6.

15) When I see the Nashville Predators, I see what Washington's missing - a hunger, a sense of urgency. If you could combine the Capitals roster with the Predators' ferocity, you'd have a hell of a team.

16) Washington's needs: speed on the defence and among the bottom six forwards; a major core player removed to shake up the group; and the addition of an aggressive, tenacious Top 6 forward (really don't like to say they need a North American up front, so let's just say a player with a "North American" attitude).

17) Alex Semin or Mike Green? One or the other, not both. Shake up your too comfortable core.

18) If you're a Capitals fan and have access to NHL.com's archive, go to the last 30 seconds of Game 3 (for those who can't see it, Ovechkin causes an offside by making an extra move while his teammates are skating hard towards the offensive zone). In the words of one long-time NHLer, "Alexander Ovechkin won't be a winner until he learns to use his teammates properly there." And this is someone who considers himself a fan.

19) Rick Nash told reporters covering the Worlds he'd "be out of a job if I didn't finish those hits" after crushing Sweden's Mikael Backlund. Yeah, not so much. I can think of a few teams who might still be interested even if he passed up that one.

20) Flyers defenceman Danny Syvret played the second round with an eyelid that wouldn't close. Shingles led to a form of Bell's Palsy on the right side of his face, which paralyzed it. He showed me how he had to manually close the eye or irrigate it with drops. Minor grossness.

21) The Boston Bruins kept Tyler Seguin out of the lineup because "he isn't ready for this yet," one member of the organization said last week. With Patrice Bergeron out, Seguin gets his chance. Boston still believes he will be a terrific player, but something to look out for his how much he carries the puck.

There is a feeling he gets rid of it too quickly because he's not yet comfortable.

22) An example of what the Bruins do so well? Look at Nathan Horton's Game 5 winner versus Montreal. Because so many teams want defenders "fronting" and blocking shots, Boston's forwards sneak behind to get rebounds and pucks that get through. Hamrlik of the Canadiens could do a better job on the battle, but giving up position is the risk you take when you play that style.

23) No deadline-ish acquisition made a more seamless adjustment than Eric Brewer in Tampa. Brewer said that rookie head coach Guy Boucher rarely talked to him the first 10 days, aside from an arrival welcome and general "How are you?" inquiries. All of the system stuff was left to assistant Daniel Lacroix because they did not want to overload him. Interesting approach.

24) Tampa beat San Jose to Brewer.

25) Tim Thomas continues to fiddle with the bars on his mask. He moved the two covering his nose even closer during the season and will try to make them thinner in the summer. Looks like a stick could get through to the eyes, but he says no, it's been tested.

26) Brad Marchand's nickname is "Squirrel." How'd he get that? "We were playing an AHL game in Hershey," he said last week. "The building was quiet during the anthem and one guy yelled out I was like a squirrel." Teammate Dan Lacouture heard it and it stuck.

27) Marchand's father, Kevin, played for the late Donnie Matheson as a junior in Moncton. He thinks that's a major reason Matheson, who worked for both organizations, convinced the Wildcats and the Bruins to draft Brad.

28) When in Carolina, Flyers assistant coach Kevin McCarthy played a huge role in developing Dennis Seidenberg into an underrated but really good NHL defenceman. Last week, McCarthy probably regretted it.

29) Love that Shane O'Brien is on Twitter and Claude Giroux is using a new website to raise money for a hospital in his hometown of Hearst, Ont. Only question: Is the timing good? Should these be launched during the playoffs?

30) Read Matt Kalman's 100 Things Bruins Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die during the first round. Good read, unless you cheer for the Canadiens.

Taking brain injuries Head On

Ian Busby, Calgary Sun Sunday, May 15, 2011


Kerry Goulet was banging his head against a wall talking about concussions for nine years before a breakthrough arrived.

It took a fallen star for head injuries to get major attention, but at least something positive has come from Sidney Crosby’s concussion.

Goulet, the founder of Stopconcussions.com — along with former NHLer Keith Primeau — has educated the public about head injuries since leaving pro hockey with his own problems.

But it wasn’t until the Pittsburgh Penguins captain got rattled Jan. 1 that a bigger spotlight arrived.

Crosby took a shot to the head but kept playing, eventually suffering a second hit four days later that knocked him out for the 2010-11 NHL season.

When Goulet spoke Sunday at Head On: The Sport Injury Prevention Convention at the University of Calgary, his No. 1 message is players need to come clean after taking head blows.

No matter how bad Crosby seemed at the time — his groggy words were caught by HBO cameras — nobody kept him from playing again.

“Keith and I were together, and we both said, ‘How can they allow him to go back on the ice?’ ” Goulet said.

“There is no way you couldn’t have seen he had brain abnormality at that time.

“If there is any doubt, they don’t play. It’s difficult to tell an athlete he won’t play. But if we keep doing this, we will keep on damaging brains, and it’s irreparable. Once it’s broken, it’s not coming back.”

Now there is another high-profile case shedding light on the problem, an issue former professional wrestler and Harvard football player Chris Nowinski has championed since starting the Sports Legacy Institute in 2007.

NHL tough-guy Derek Boogaard, 28, died tragically Friday, and his family is donating his brain to the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, where Nowinski is a co-director.

This is the same group that diagnosed enforcers Reggie Fleming and Bob Probert as having chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Nowinski spoke Sunday at the Calgary Bulldogs Football Association seminar about how CTE is diagnosed, using his own repeated ignorance about concussions as an example.

There are several examples of football players whose suicides are related head blows throughout their careers, but it wasn’t until their brains were studied that the damage was fully revealed.

“It seems unethical we haven’t been telling athletes about this, but we haven’t,” Nowinski said. “The status quo has to change. The evidence we have in our lab says we did things wrong. We need radical change to fix the future.

“The legacy donors have provided the proof the world need to take this more seriously. They have changed people’s minds.”

As a former football player, Nowinski is trying to educate coaches, parents and players about how to avoid unnecessary head hits, especially in practice.

Children are much more easy concussed than adults, and Nowinski illustrated his point by showing two young football players knocking helmets in a pointless drill.

“My best advice: Stop hitting kids in the head,” Nowinski said.

Two compassionate Wild fans, and the power of Facebook, create a special night for the Boogaards

Posted by: Michael Russo May 16, 2011

This is Michael Russo's 16th year covering the National Hockey League. He's covered the Minnesota Wild for the Star Tribune since 2005 following 10 years of covering the Florida Panthers for the Sun-Sentinel. Michael uses “Russo’s Rants” to feed a wide-ranging hockey-centric discussion with readers, and “Russo Radio” can be heard weekly on 1500 ESPN.




The Boogaard family has sat inside Xcel Energy Center many times. They've watched a gazillion games.

It's safe they knew just how many in Minnesota adored their son, Derek Boogaard. But in case just a little part of them had forgotten, more than 300 Wild fans so incredibly came down to the X tonight to show the Boogaards how much they were also wounded by this horrible loss. I left to go write after the formal part of the memorial was over, but I heard from many that there was a steady stream of fans still arriving well past 8 p.m. to pay their respects.

Derek Boogaard wasn't the best skater, he wasn't the best stick-handler (I can hear Boogaard now say, "Uhhh, Roose, I ... can't stick-handle"), he wasn't the best shooter.

But everybody loved Boogey. He was the underdog, the guy who had to work excruciatingly hard just to make it to the NHL, the guy who you could see playing in your beer league, the guy who excited every paying customer every single time with a good scrap.

As Wes Walz eloquently said tonight, "We needed Derek in the lineup to protect and take care of us. I can tell you a lot of guys on our bench grew an inch or two and were a lot braver when Derek was in the lineup."

Fans root for that. But there was obviously more. There was just something about Boogey -- that personality, that humor, that obvious humanity.

Fans picked up on that right away.

Chuck Fletcher and Walz talked a lot about that side of Boogaard at tonight's incredible memorial that was completely, utterly, 100 percent the creation of two young Wild fans I'll get more into in a moment.

Fletcher talked about how every single time he saw Boogaard walk by a line of kids, he'd stop to sign autographs, take pictures, chat. "Nothing was more important," Fletcher said.

Walz talked about how often Boogaard, without anybody knowing like TV cameras and reporters, would visit the Children's Hospital.

At that moment, a memory popped in my head.

In April 2009, about a week after GM Doug Risebrough was fired, Risebrough held his press availability at Tom Reid's. The presser ended, I walked outside to call my editor and discuss what was said and find out what my space was (how much I could write).

A black SUV pulls up to me, I look up and Boogaard's in the passenger seat. Sticking out the window is his entire right arm in what had to be the most uncomfortable contraption I've ever seen.

Boogaard had literally just gotten out of the operating room from offseason shoulder surgery. He didn't go home. He asked to be driven to Tom Reid's.

Boogaard asked me if I could do him a favor, go back inside and get Risebrough for him. Risebrough came out, I stepped away and you could just see how touched Risebrough was.

You see, Boogaard knew wholeheartedly that he owed his NHL career to Risebrough. He just wanted to tell Risebrough face-to-face, "Thank you, and I'm so sorry" -- regardless of the fact that he was in pain and woozy.

This was the real Boogaard, not the person who rearranged faces for a living.

Fans showed their appreciation tonight during so many touching ways, I can't even begin to describe. It was just such a sad thing to see the torment Boogaard's family was going through. After all, Derek had passed away just 48 hours before.

But the family was so touched that Wild fans had organized this memorial, they felt it was incumbent upon them to show. It had to be therapeutic, too.

His mother, Joanne, one of the nicest people ever, began crying the second she saw how many fans were in the lobby of the X. She was joined by Derek's father, Len, brothers Aaron and Ryan, sister, Krysten, half-brother, Curtis, Fletcher, former Wild teammates Brent Burns, Andrew Brunette, Niklas Backstrom, Nick Schultz, Stephane Veilleux, Wes Walz and the entire Wild training staff. There were several other friends and family, including his friend and agent Tobin Wright and boxing and martial arts trainer, Jeremy Clark.

Many in the Wild’s front office and scouting staff also attended, as did former Wild assistant GM Tommy Thompson, former director of hockey operations Chris Snow and former scout Todd Woodcroft.

The marquee video boards on the sides of the outside of the arena had scrolling pictures of Boogaard, inside there was video of Boogaard on a reel, there were pictures and flowers and signs.

This was all the brainchild of 19-year-old Katie Haag of St. Francis and 18-year-old Shelby Leske of Hutchinson.

This started with a simple Facebook "event" the night Boogaard died. They didn't have permission. They didn't ask if the building was available. They just knew in their heart what they had to do, and they did it.

It grew and grew. I was even a little squeamish about whether or not I was supposed to promote it. After all, the Wild wasn't putting it on and the family didn't know about it and they were mourning.

But this morning, Ryan Boogaard texted me that the family was going, and I instantly got it up on our site.

"Derek’s what made me love the game," said Leske.

"When Shelby texted me that he died, my eyes instantly shot up to the picture of Boogaard on my wall. I'm just like, 'he's too young,'" Haag said, trying to catch her breath. "His career was just starting, and I know all about the charities he did. All those kids loved him so much.

"I had no idea this was going to end up this big at all, which I’m glad. I’m not embarrassed by it at all. I’m proud. We were walking outside looking at all the news crews, and we said, 'This happened from 18- and 19-year-old girls."

It was an amazing gift to the family. I got to talk to his family after the event for awhile, and they were so genuinely touched.

I feel compelled to share with you the transcipt of what the family said tonight at the memorial. It began with Aaron, but the grief was too much. So Krysten began, and Ryan stepped in.

I can't even explain how touching a scene this was to witness.

Krysten: On behalf of our entire family and all of Derek’s teammates from this year and year’s past, we want to say thank you for taking the time to come here and honor a man who was a son, a brother, a friend and teammate.

We know that Derek would want to thank the Minnesota Wild for allowing us to have this service here. The Wild gave Derek his first chance in believing in him against all odds and that he could provide contribution to the team. We know he would thank them for that. Secondly, we know Derek would thank the New York Rangers for the care they gave to him, the respect they showed him and the opportunity they provided him. And to all his teammates on all his teams, we know it was Derek’s opinion that you thought he was your comfort. In reality, everyday you guys gave Derek a reason to come to work.

Above all else, Derek put other people ahead of himself. Selfless in his hockey and selfless in his personal life. Derek’s life has been dedicated to helping other people first. Where there is a teammate in trouble on or off the ice, where there was a friend in need of a sympathetic ear or someone he met on the street, Derek always made that situation a priority. Judging by how many people have written our family and judging by the impact that Derek has had on our lives and everyone here tonight, it is obvious how much he has meant to a lot of people.

Derek is known everywhere he goes as larger than life, but in his heart, he is an everyman. The phrase we have most often seen written lately by his colleagues across the country, the hockey world and from other people that have meant the most to him, the fans, Derek was known as a ‘teddy bear.’

Our family couldn’t agree more with this assessment, but what is a teddy bear? A teddy bear is first and foremost a source of comfort , and having heard from his teammates, we know how much a comfort Derek provided on the ice. Secondly a teddy bear is dependable. Derek was dependable to a fault. You could depend on him for anything you needed at any time. Your priority became his priority.

Ryan: Thirdly, teddy bears are usually big, and while he couldn’t admit it, cuddly. You wouldn’t think of Derek as cuddly, but there wasn’t a person in our lives that had more love to give and more love to receive. Lastly, teddy bears are loyal. They’re a constant reminder of what is good in our lives. Love, trust, friendship and selflessness. Teddy bears give but don’t ask in return, and this is unconditional. There are no demands in return. Derek was a teddy bear, and always will be our teddy bear.

We aren’t here to talk about Derek’s hockey career because his hockey was just a seasonal thing for us. It was just an aspect of what he did, who he was. We’re here because we have lost a son, a brother, a role model and a friend. Derek quietly in his community life, not wanting the attention usually associated with these efforts, preferred to just roll up his sleeves and get down to business much like his work on the ice. This is how we choose to remember him and ask that you do the same. We know we will never forget who Derek was and who he is. We know that every friend he made and every teammate he played with will say the same thing about Derek.

Derek’s legacy will live with us every day. And for any of you that knows him or who have met him, no matter how briefly, we know that you too will be touched by the light that was Derek. While this light was extinguished too early, it will continue to burn strong for all of us that were privileged enough to know him and love him.

I've gotten a lot of emails and tweets this week asking how Brent Burns and Cal Clutterbuck were doing. I didn't want to bother Burns tonight because he was visibly down in the dumps, but I did get to talk to Clutterbuck on the phone. He's home in Ontario.

Clutterbuck was one of Boogaard’s closest friends when he played for the Wild. He returned from the World Championships in Slovakia, turned on his phone and was hit with the horrifying news.

“To me, it still feels kind of like a story. It seems like it really didn’t happen,” Clutterbuck said. “When I first got there, I was a young rookie and I had few conversations with the guys. But I sat besides Boogey in the room and I did things with him outside of hockey.

“He was fun to talk to every day. Just nothing things. We talked about nothing, and that was the best part.”

Anyway, that was a longer blog than I anticipated. It's late. Good night everyone.

Radical changes needed to stop concussions: expert

By Kristen Odland, Calgary Herald May 16, 2011


A researcher from the Boston University School of Medicine said radical change needs to happen in concussion prevention.

“We’re not having very big conversations about (concussion prevention) and part of that needs to come from the top down in terms of rule changes, policy changes, training changes,” said Chris Nowinski, a leading expert in concussions, who spoke Sunday to a gathering during the Head On Sport Head Injury Prevention Convention at the University of Calgary. “Luckily, we are having conversations with the bodies that are in charge of those things.

“It’s education.”

Nowinski, a Harvard graduate and former WWE wrestler, has been educating the masses on concussion issues. He’s the co-founder and president of the Sports Legacy Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to sports concussions, and the co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University. Researchers there have set up a brain bank to investigate athletes for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease which causes cognitive decline, behavioural abnormalities including depression, and dementia.

The post-mortem analysis of brain tissue reveals concussions and non-concussive blows could both be linked to the disease. About 400 athletes have agreed to donate their brains to the research facility when they die.

“It doesn’t necessarily correlate to concussions right now, but that’s because we haven’t historically diagnosed them,” Nowinski said. “It appears to be correlated to total brain trauma. We know that every hit to the head and every symptom counts.”

On Sunday, the Sports Legacy Institute received word that the family of National Hockey League enforcer Derek Boogaard has donated his brain to the institution. Due to legal reasons, Nowinski couldn’t speculate on Boogaard’s situation.

Boogaard, who spent his first five seasons with the Minnesota Wild, was limited to 22 games last season with the New York Rangers due to a concussion and shoulder injury. He was found dead in his Minneapolis apartment Friday.

Concussion and spinal injury activist Kerry Goulet, who works alongside former NHLer Keith Primeau, told the audience Boogaard’s family made the right decision in donating his brain to science.

“What a horrible, tragic incident that has happened,” said Goulet, who suffered depression and the effects of concussions during a 16-year professional hockey career in Germany. “It brings back memories you just don’t want to think about. It’s a grieving time for the family; all of us a community of hockey and sports people are I’m sure sending out their regards for the family.

“And, hopefully, through his death and if it is in fact that it is something that has been dealt to him through concussion and possibly through the CTE situation, we learn from it.”

Two cases of CTE in the NHL have been discovered.

Reggie Fleming died in 2009 at age 73 with dementia. Bob Probert, a 16-year veteran who died last summer after his heart gave out while he was fishing, suffered at least three concussions and struggled with substance abuse. He began to show signs of CTE in his 40s, such as memory loss and behavioural problems.

Both players were fighters.

The findings have fuelled the debate surrounding the need for rule changes in hockey, which largely came to the forefront when Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby was sidelined with concussion symptoms this season.

“We knew it was real. I’ve been doing this for nine years and all of a sudden, now that Crosby’s gone out of the game with a concussion, we take it really seriously,” Goulet added. “People like Chris have been able to build an infrastructure for us to educate and hopefully make a difference in this thing.”

Nowinski was speaking in Calgary along with Goulet, Calgary Stampeders medical services director Pat Clayton, Dr. Carolyn Emery, professor of pediatric rehabilitation at the University of Calgary, and Brady Greening, the director of health services and head athletic therapist at the Edge School.

All speakers alluded to the fact that children are much more susceptible to concussions. Nowinski said because their brains are developing, they are more sensitive to the excitotoxic shock of a concussion. Other factors are weak necks and torsos that can’t distribute force of the body well, poor equipment, exposure to coaches of various levels of training, and have poor language skills to communicate concussion symptoms.

Helmets are one element in prevention, according to Nowinski, but rule and culture changes also need to be enforced.

“When we think about the problem with kids and playing contact sports,” explained Nowinski. “We have to start thinking about the differences between adults and kids.

“If we’re concerned about adults, we should be really, really, worried about kids.”

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