NEW YORK — On one hand, it might seem ridiculous to have a discussion about a concussed/non-concussed fourth-liner just hours before Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final. This is the biggest game the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers have played in decades.
However, there’s also a strong case to be made that this is the perfect time to delve into this issue — one being faced by numerous sports leagues and one the NHL has actively been concerned about since 1997.
What is happening with Dale Weise right now is more likely to happen when the games mean so much. The Montreal Canadiens winger took a huge blindside hit from John Moore toward the end of Tuesday’s Game 5 and was clearly wobbly as he left the ice. After a visit to the quiet room (where he is said to have passed a “Modified SCAT 2” test), Weise saw 1:44 of ice time, including the final 61 seconds of a 7-4 victory.
However, he was then ruled completely out of Thursday’s game at Madison Square Garden. The Habs were cagey about the specific nature of Weise’s ailment — coach Michel Therrien called it a “body injury” — but the fact he sustained one was a key reason why Moore received a two-game suspension.
The NHL looked into how the situation was handled by Montreal’s training staff and determined that there was no wrongdoing. The protocol was followed. All of which reminds us that the protocol is far from perfect, and will likely never be perfect because of the uncertain nature of concussions.
What’s more, short of automatically ruling every player who takes a head hit out of the game, this sort of thing will continue happening. Even the possibility of long-term health consequences won’t dissuade most players at this time of year.
“You’re in the moment,” explained Montreal defenceman Josh Gorges. “Everyone’s different, but if I’m sitting there and you’re in the quiet room, I’m not thinking, ‘Well, in 30 years am I going to be [OK]?’ The only thing I’m thinking about is, ‘Get me back out on the ice.’ “
At the outset of these playoffs, NHL teams were reminded that they would face significant fines if they failed to properly follow the concussion protocol. The league is also believed to be open to the possibility of following in the NFL’s footsteps and having neutral doctors, not team ones, administer the SCAT 2 test and assess symptoms. But that is in the future.
In the here and now, the Canadiens are trying to win the Stanley Cup, and Weise was cleared to return to Game 5 by trainers. As one of the team’s more trusted players when playing with a lead, Therrien didn’t think twice about using Weise in that situation — and it’s easy to understand the coach’s rationale, even if you disagree with it.
“Those are the things that I don’t know,” Therrien said when asked about the criteria used to clear an injured player. “As a coach, I never get a concussion. But one thing is, we trust our medical staff. We trust our doctor. So when they’re saying that he’s good to go, he’s good to go.”
The Weise injury is untimely for Montreal because he’s proven to be a pretty effective depth forward this post-season. The Habs would love to have him for a must-win Game 6. He’ll be replaced by Brandon Prust, who just finished serving a two-game suspension.
New York, meanwhile, will insert Raphael Diaz for the suspended Moore and play him out of position on the left side of a defensive pairing with Kevin Klein.
Injuries happen in hockey, and the number of players who compete through them during the playoffs is far too exhaustive to list. Remember that Boston Bruins centre Patrice Bergeron played through a partially collapsed lung in the Stanley Cup Final last year and then spent three days in hospital immediately afterward. In this series alone, Canadiens goalie Carey Price played through a right knee injury and Rangers centre Derek Stepan finished a game after breaking his jaw.
However, concussions are another issue altogether, and that’s why the Weise situation dominated the discussion at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. Head injuries are a sensitive subject, and blame can’t easily be assigned to any one party, at least not in good faith.
“It’s such a tricky injury because as a doctor you can’t read that player’s mind, you don’t know what’s going on inside his brain,” said Gorges, who is as thoughtful as they come in the NHL. “As a player, how do you really know if you have a concussion? I don’t know how many days I’ve woken up [after a game] and you feel groggy, you feel tired, you’ve got a headache and you’re thinking, ‘I did take a pretty big hit last night.’
“Maybe you’re just tired, maybe you’re just fatigued, you’re dehydrated.”
The size of the moment is another factor that can’t be ignored either.
“As long as you feel like you can get out there and help the team, you go — unless the doctors say it’s not healthy for you to go,” said Gorges.
