NHL COLUMN: Pronger, Giroux latest cases of Flyers concussion history
Patient Pronger went to Pittsburgh Wednesday, not to pay fellow dizzy hockey star Sidney Crosby a therapeutic visit, but to seek out some help.Pronger was expected to be seen by glibly named concussion specialists Joe Maroon and Mickey Collins, the same neurology guys who have been close by Sid’s side for too many days the past year, the same doctors whose best advice to such impatient patients is usually the same…just sit and wait it out, boys.it really is too often the same when it comes to head injuries in hockey. Players get their noggins knocked, their brains take a swim, their competitive natures – and sometimes their employers — force the issue of a fast return.The players want to play, and usually too soon.Crosby returned last month from a concussion that sidelined him 10 months. He played eight games before starting to feel symptoms again. his is the biggest name in sports-concussion stories in the past year, though Flyers fans would readily offer a sad hue and cry that Flyers center and top league scorer Claude Giroux is just as mighty of a MIA in current concussion circles.The Flyers, of course, are no strangers to concussion tales. Pronger and Giroux are just the latest cases of famed Philly hockey head hurts.Keith Primeau returned from concussions too early or simply shrugged them during playoff runs in 2000 and 2004. He scored the famed fifth-overtime goal to beat the Penguins in Pittsburgh that 2000 spring – two nights after being concussed. And of his four documented career concussions, Primeau admits he returned too quickly from all of them.Eventually forced to retire from the Flyers due to post-concussion symptoms, Primeau is an advocate of spreading the word about brain injuries and runs a website devoted to it.then there is Eric Lindros, who spent his last two years in a Flyers uniform battling both recurring concussions and the club’s management. Lindros, whose last moment as a Flyer was forever documented with him flattened on the ice after being hit (and concussed) by New Jersey’s Scott Stevens at the end of that 2000 playoff run, dealt with what he was told were eight separate career concussions, seven of them while with the Flyers. Continued…
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