Hockey Hearsay: Horton concussion & J-Bouw
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The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that after weeks of speculation over the status of Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and his recovery from a concussion, the team issued an update Wednesday night on its website.
Crosby, the Penguins said, has visited concussion specialists in Georgia and Michigan, with the conclusion being that he is expected to make a full recovery, but that it could take more time.
He was leading the NHL with 66 points in 41 games when he was diagnosed with a concussion Jan. 6 that sidelined him for the rest of the season and the playoffs.
“I appreciate all the support I’ve received from my family, friends, teammates and fans and from the entire Penguins organization,” Crosby said in the statement after not speaking publicly for about four months.
“I know they only want the best for my health, and for me to be fully ready when I return to game action.”
The article recalls that Crosby began experiencing headaches when he reached 90 percent exertion in his rigorous offseason workouts, and that training was altered, although the release did not say how it was altered.
Training camp opens Sept. 16, and the season opens Oct. 6, but it is not known if Crosby will be ready for either of those dates. He is expected back in Pittsburgh in the next few weeks.
“We always knew this was going to be a progressive recovery — based on how he felt,” said Crosby’s agent, Pat Brisson, in the release.
“With a concussion, there is not a finite recovery period like with a shoulder injury or a knee injury. That’s why we’ve never even set a specific goal for a return date like the start of training camp or Oct. 1 or anything else. He will play when he is symptom free.”
The release said Crosby has made significant progress this summer, which is what general manager Ray Shero and coach Dan Bylsma have said recently. The release also said Crosby’s rigorous workouts included skating, shooting, stickhandling and off-ice work. It did not say what his workouts have consisted of since he began having headaches and the workouts were altered.
“We’ve had him see leading specialists because we want to make sure he gets the best care possible,” Brisson said. “The Penguins always encourage their players to get second and third medical opinions and have been very supportive of this. And we’ve been talking to Ray Shero every step of the way.”
Crosby’s primary concussion doctor has been Michael Collins of UPMC.
The Post-Gazette points out Brisson made a plea to tone down the intense push for information about Crosby:
“We would appreciate patience and understanding at this time. There has been a lot of speculation swirling over the past several weeks. We wish we could provide more specific details about Sidney’s recovery, but a concussion is a different kind of injury. It’s not something you can check with an X-ray. And you can’t predict a precise recovery period. It’s all about the way he feels.
“He has been feeling a lot better, but we want to give him all the time he needs to make a full recovery. He’s only 24, and he’s got a lot of great years ahead of him.”
The Denver Post remembers that Peter Mueller thought his concussion problems were over last September, only to suffer another one in his first game back in the Avalanche’s preseason.
He missed the entire regular season. Mueller is saying all the right things again, but with a noticeable uptick in his voice.
“I’m excited to be a hockey player again,” Mueller said Wednesday in his first public comments since last September. “Obviously, I’ve had concussions in the past and it’s something I have to deal with, but right now everything is in the right direction. Everything is pointing forward. I’m excited that it’s all behind me.”
Mueller, a left winger whose good health could be a major key to how successful the Avs are this coming season, has been skating regularly and will undergo physicals with the rest of the team Sept. 16. Assuming he passes, he’ll be on the ice with no restrictions the next day, the first of training camp.
Mueller believes a new one-piece helmet — made by Easton Sports called the S19 Z-Shock — will help him stay healthy. Despite weighing only 325 grams, Easton claims the helmet exceeds minimum safety regulations of NHL helmets by as much as 40 percent. He’ll also wear a new tinted visor designed to lower the potentially harmful effects bright lighting can have on concussion victims.
“Sometimes I feel like I’m in ‘Top Gun’ out there with the tinted visor, but it’s been great and a very comfortable helmet to wear,” said Mueller, 23, the eighth overall selection in the 2006 NHL draft by Phoenix.
The Post notes Mueller posted nine goals and 20 points in his first 15 games with Colorado after being acquired from Phoenix in 2010 but suffered a season-ending concussion April 4 after a hit from San Jose’s Rob Blake. Mueller reported to training camp the next fall but was reinjured in the first preseason game against Los Angeles. He said he was struck by an errant stick in the left temple — the same area where the first concussion occurred.
After several months when the symptoms failed to subside, Mueller was referred to Dr. Robert Cantu, a Boston University professor of neurosurgery who is a leading authority in sports-related brain injury. In a recent interview, Cantu said that once a concussion has fully healed, patients are no more susceptible to reinjury than anyone else. Mueller said he became better educated about the brain and his condition, and is quick to credit the Avalanche and its fans for staying patient with him.
“I’ve really come to know how much heart is in this organization,” Mueller said. “They didn’t have to stick by me, but they did and the fans have really helped me get through it. The letters I got picked me up and will never be forgotten.”
The Ottawa Sun recalls how not so long ago, Erik Karlsson was the stranger in a strange land — a young Swedish hockey player in a foreign country.
He knows how much easier it became when Daniel Alfredsson reached out and helped. Now, he’s hoping to return the favour.
When training camp opens next month, Karlsson will reach out to Swedish newcomers David Rundblad and Mika Zibanejad, willing to offer the same helping hand he got from Alfredsson.
“I remember how much (Alfredsson) was able to help me when I got here,” said the 21-year-old Karlsson. “Even though I haven’t been here as long as he was when I got here, I still think it’s good for the young guys coming in here to speak their own language once in a while and ask if there’s anything they need to know.
“I think it’s good for everyone, even me, to have them here. It gives you a bit of comfort. I can call them up for a BBQ once in a while and (Tuesday) we all had lunch.”
This might sound odd, but Karlsson has quickly moved from top prospect to veteran on the Senators’ roster. The team’s rebuild started last spring and has thrust him into a role as an experienced player.
An NHL all-star last season, Karlsson will be relied on heavily to play important minutes.
“It’s going to be exciting. I’m really looking forward to being one of the guys who is able to help some guys,” said Karlsson. “I’m still young, but I really like that role.”
The Sun points out that while Karlsson doesn’t know Zibanejad, Rundblad was his national team teammate. Acquired from the St. Louis Blues for the Senators’ top pick in the 2010 NHL entry draft, Rundblad is going to get a good chance to stick in Ottawa.
“He’s a good hockey player,” said Karlsson. “Whatever he does, he does it (well). Wherever he is, he’s going to have a good year.”
Jay Bouwmeester is taking a wait-and-see approach to the season, according to The Edmonton Sun.
The local product, who is currently skating with a number of pros at Perry Pearn’s three-on-three camp this week, is expected to log big minutes on the Calgary Flames blue line this year.
With the departure of Robyn Regehr, Bouwmeester is taking over the role of the Flames top defenceman.
“Losing Robyn is tough, he’s a guy that’s been there a long time,” Bouwmeester said. “He was one of our leaders for sure.
“But that sort of thing kind of happens quite a bit now. There are changes everywhere going into every year and you just have to deal with it.”
Heading into his third season with the Flames, Bouwmeester anchors a blue line that a couple of years ago also featured Dion Phaneuf and was considered one of the best in the league.
This year, Bouwmeester, Mark Giordano, Cory Sarich and the newly acquired Scott Hannan make up the meat of the Flames defence.
“I think bringing in Scott will help, he’s a solid defensive guy,” Bouwmeester said. “But everyone, every year is kind of in the same type of boat with all the changes. Everyone has to have the outlook at the start of the year that you want to give yourself a chance by making the playoffs and going from there.”
The Winnipeg Free Press details how there was no goalie manning the crease — no Ryan Miller, Carey Price or Roberto Luongo standing ground — but the puck still found the goal-scorer’s sweet spot in the top shelf.
And with that Eric Fehr flashed a quick and telling smile.
Yes, there was the 25-year-old Winnipeg Jets‘ winger at MTS IcePlex Wednesday afternoon for just his second on-ice training session of the summer. Working with Jets’ assistant athletic therapist Lee Stubbs, Fehr did some skating and passing drills before finishing up firing shots at a gaping cage.
And make no mistake — this is a big deal for the Winkler product as he recuperates from shoulder surgery (torn labrum) in May.
“I wasn’t shooting it that hard yet, I was just floating it in there,” said Fehr after signing autographs for a handful of fans. “I’m slowly working on getting that increased, but the shock effect from a shot when you have to recoil your muscles is what gets you after surgery. So I’m just trying to mostly get a feel for skating and stick-handling and as I get stronger I’ll be able to start shooting a little bit harder.
“Mostly,” he added with a grin, “I’m trying to make sure my hands still work.”
The Free Press relays that immediately after the surgery Fehr was limited to lifting just one and two-pound weights before progressing to band and cable work. He hopes to soon be cranking up his ice-work to three or four times a week.
“This is something I want to be the last time I go through,” he said. “I understand it’s going to be tough for the first month of the season when we’re starting up and with the excitement of the city… that’s something I want to really be a part of. But long term I’ve got to be healthy.”
Initially stung by the trade from the Caps in July — he was acquired for minor-league forward Danick Paquette and a fourth-round draft pick — Fehr has become invigorated at the prospect of playing in front of friends and family in his home province.
Right here and right now, however, he’s focused on the daily grind of rehab.
“Just seeing the guys skating, I want to be out there,” he said. “It’s tough right now to hold the reins back a little bit, but at the end of the day I think it’s important for me to be as strong as I can be before the season gets going.
The Winnipeg Sun details how Bryan Little’s first clue came soon after he landed in Winnipeg.
“I got recognized at the airport the other day,” the Winnipeg Jets forward said. “But it might have been the Atlanta Thrashers bag I was holding.”
Maybe.
Then again, look what happened to Mark Scheifele at a Winnipeg restaurant this week.
The Jets’ first draft pick was stopped on his way to the bathroom. And he wasn’t carrying any bags or wearing anything with a logo on it.
“I just walked to the washroom and, ‘Mark, can you come and take a picture with my son?’ ” Scheifele recalled. “I was like, ‘You guys already know me.’ I’ve never had that really happen before.
“That’s pretty cool to actually see that, just being a draft pick.”
You play for the new Jets, and you automatically trade in your anonymity.
Little, a four-year NHLer with tousled hair and a quick laugh, and Scheifele, the clean-cut rookie, were in town for Wednesday’s Dale Hawerchuk charity golf tournament.
The Sun says for a guy like Little, who doesn’t crave the limelight, it’ll be different.
“I kind of like flying under the radar,” the 23-year-old said. “It’ll be an adjustment for everyone who’s used to playing in Atlanta. We’re not used to the media, not used to the fans, being in a hockey city like this. It’ll be an adjustment, but probably for the better.”
In the short term, especially. Over the long haul, that may depend. Just ask Hawerchuk, who knows a thing or two about being a celebrity in this town.
“You better play well because everywhere you go they’re going to know who you are,” the former Jets star said. “And if you want to walk around proud, then it’s good to be playing well and have a good record behind you.”
Like Scheifele, his star player with the OHL’s Barrie Colts last season, Hawerchuk was 18 when he first arrived.
Almost instantly, he couldn’t go anywhere without being recognized.
“Sometimes you might think it gets in the way, ‘I want to get this done, or I want to get that done.’ That goes out the window,” Hawerchuk said. “Because sometimes you just can’t. But it’s a good problem to have. The big thing is you still gotta keep your priorities in order. You do have to perform, and that’s why they love you.”
The Boston Globe reports that a handful of Bruins were at LeLacheur Stadium for Milan Lucic’s second annual Rock Jock Softball Game. Making the rounds are Lucic, Patrice Bergeron, Nathan Horton, Tuukka Rask, Dennis Seidenberg, Shawn Thornton, and Daniel Paille.
Horton, knocked out by Aaron Rome in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, said he’s symptom-free and working out. Horton has not skated but said he’ll be ready for the start of camp, which opens Sept. 16.
As usual, Horton was all smiles. But when asked whether Rome had contacted him after the wallop, Horton was quick to dismiss the defenseman’s method of communication: text.
“If it was me, I wouldn’t have thrown a text message someone’s way,” Horton said. “I’d have a little bit more respect to actually make a phone call.”
Rask, who underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee after the season, said he was sidelined for approximately 4-5 weeks. Rask since has resumed workouts and might be getting on the ice next week. He said he’ll be ready for the start of camp.
Lucic said he’s breathing normally after undergoing surgery on his nose. Lucic said he played most of last year while having trouble breathing out of his right nostril. The left wing acknowledged his right big toe, fractured by an errant Tyler Seguin shot in the Eastern Conference final, is still hurting. Lucic did not have surgery on his toe.
Twitter: @Nichols_NHLPool/ Email: chris.nichols@sportsnet.rogers.com
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