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.
We are down to only one NHL team that has not had a reported concussion. As of last week there were three; Carolina, Ottawa and San Jose. Carolina is the only team this season to not have a player concussed, and with generally 10 games remaining the Hurricanes have escaped thus far.
Today we can present there have been 84 listings (will be updated through Monday if needed), some of which we have gone “CSI” on and read reports-watched video and took the liberty of classifying them as concussions/head due to mechanism of injury and listed symptoms. Regardless we feel that this list is very comprehensive and accurate. Some statistics that we have for you this week;
- 1.17 concussions/”game night” is the current rate
- 1.02 concussions/”game night” is the projected pace
- 0.04 concussions/actual game played is the current rate
- 0.03 concussions/actual game played is the projected pace
- 12.17% of the leagues active roster (690) have been concussed
- Defensmen make up 38.10% of the concussions
- Centers make up 22.62%
- Right Wingers make up 21.43%
- Left Wingers make up 15.48%
- Goalies make up 2.38%
This weeks additions are;
- Loui Eriksson – Dallas
- Niclas Wallin – San Jose
- Freddy Meyer – Atlanta (initial injury was 2/4 just now listed as concussion)
- Kyle Clifford – Los Angeles
- Surgei Gonchar – Ottawa
I have started a list of players that “seem” to be suspicious, due to the nature of the “undisclosed” or “upper body” injury and the time missed they are; Patrice Cormier, Jochen Hecht, Johan Franzen, Marc Staal, and Darryl Boyce. Expect there to be many more non-descriptive injury listings as the playoffs approach, yet another example of how the NHL needs to improve. If those five were in fact concussions we are at 89…
Remember hockey fans if you know of a player concussed that has not been reported feel free to send us an email or tweet.
The Concussion Blog 