The Concussion Blog

Each week we scour the web to find concussions in the National Hockey League.  We will keep a running tally on that information as the season progresses.  However, it is not easy as the NHL has decided that listing injuries as “upper body” or “undisclosed” is a good indicator of actual injuries occurred.  Our list is believed to be as accurate as possible, even including injuries that have vague listings but through reports and video analysis should be classified as concussions.

This week has been extremely difficult to mine out any injury let alone a concussion.  Sixteen of the 30 teams will be playing more games, high intensity games, winner moves on games; letting an opponent know about an injury would weaken them.  Meh!  That is ridiculous, how about the NHL players start respecting one another out there, it is 2011 not 1975.

Add to that, not listing head injuries is doing a disservice to the league, the players and its fans; knowing the extent of the concussion issue should be a priority.  Without a beginning how will anyone know if there is improvement?

Now with that rant out-of-the-way we can present to you 98 listed or very suspicious listings dealing with the head/concussion.  There are about 5 others that remain a mystery from earlier in the season and plenty of “undisclosed” injuries appearing this week as well.

The new additions to the list this week are;

• John-Michael Liles, Colorado
• Tyler Sloan, Washingon
• Matt Hunwick, Colorado
• Ryan Carter, Florida
• Tomas Kopecky, Chicago

We will be keeping track of the concussions in the playoffs, IF THEY BECOME AVAILABLE.  But for now here are the end of the regular season concussion statistics;

• 1.20 concussions/game night
• 0.04 concussions/game played
• 14.20% of NHL active roster was concussed
• Defensman comprised 38.78% of concussions
• Centers comprised 24.49%
• Right Wingers comprised 19.39%
• Left Wingers comprised 15.31%
• Goalies 2.04%
• Carolina did not report a single concussion
• San Jose, Columbus, Montreal, New Jersey with one reported
• Florida, Ottawa, Los Angeles, Detroit, Rangers, Philly, Tampa Bay and Toronto with two reported
• Calgary, Buffalo, Nashville with three reported
• Chicago, Washington, Vancouver, Edmonton, Anaheim, Boston and St. Louis with four reported
• Atlanta, Dallas, Phoenix, Minnesota and Pittsburgh with five reported
• Islanders with six
• And Colorado with ten reported concussions, which in my mind is the ONLY team that has been forthright with the reporting.