Hockey Mom wanted to pass on this interesting piece on hockey and concussions, particularly when it comes to young players. Speaking of young players, #7 in the photo is one of my twins - and yes, he does have his stick turned the wrong way (believe me - HM was yelling "turn your stick around" the entire tournament)!
In all seriousness, concussions are not anything to play around with - just ask the Caps' Brian Pothier. I saw a kid (a young guy, probably in Squirt division) get completely nailed this weekend and came off holding his head. The coach did not let him play another shift. That was unlike Chicago's Martin Havlat, who returned against Detroit, despite concussion symptoms resulting from having been "Kronwalled" in a previous game. Hockey is not a game for the faint of heart (or head), that's for sure.
In Capsland, Capitals' staffer Mike Vogel sat down with majority owner Ted Leonsis yesterday for a "State of Caps Nation" session. Check it out here:
And I know all you die-hard fans out there will still be watching (even though - gulp - still difficult as a Caps fan to sneak a peek at the enemy), here is the Stanley Cup Finals schedule:
Saturday, May 30 at Detroit - 8:00 pm (NBC)
Sunday, May 31 at Detroit - TBD-Evening (NBC)
Tuesday, June 2 at Pittsburgh - 8:00 pm (VERSUS)
Thursday, June 4 at Pittsburgh - 8:00 pm (VERSUS)
* Saturday, June 6 at Detroit - 8:00 pm (NBC)
* Tuesday, June 9 at Pittsburgh - 8:00 pm (NBC)
* Friday, June 12 at Detroit - 8:00 pm (NBC)
* denotes if necessary
The back-to-backs this weekend are a bad deal for the Red Wings, who are still a banged-up bunch. But they'll have their home crowd and octopus twirlers to get them fired up. One of the positives about this year's finals is that I think the Pens will give the Wings a better run for their money as opposed to last year (wait, did I just say that out loud?)...but hey, they have been enhanced with the likes of Bill Guerin, Chris Kunitz, and former Cup-holder Ruslan Fedotenko, who as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning scored the only two goals in Game 7 against Calgary and went on to hoist Lord Stanley's Cup in 2004.
Speaking of Pittsburgh, HM threatened to stop patronizing my favorite Starbucks (have been going in there for 12 years now) when the manager was wearing one of the snow-fairy blue Penguins hats this morning. After some ribbing from HM, he assured me that he was only wearing it after losing a bet to another Pens-loving barista.
So who are all you Caps fans rooting for in the Stanley Cup Finals?
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2 comments:
My daughter sufferred a concussion during a soccer tournament in Williamsburg, VA this past weekend. It happened just before the end of the last game. The girl who intentionally took her down laughed at her while she tried to get back up. Four hours at the hospital, and we ended up having to see her regular doctor in order to get a lousy CT Scan. You can't take chances with head injuries.
The Pens are definitely better this year. My daughter and I are rooting for the Wings, but probably won't watch the first couple games of the series.
Hi Dan - Glad you're daughter was okay. What's just as bad is the player who laughed at her when she was down. That's a result of poor sportsmanship taught by the coach, parents or both.
We were at a hockey tournament last year and this kid got a 10-minute misconduct in the last few minutes of the game. Needless to say, he should have been out the rest of the period but whoever was working the box let him out and he proceeded to ramp up and ram one of my boys' straight into the boards, head first. Thankfully, we had two team dads who were doctors to help me keep an eye on him. Very scary stuff...
I have to root for the Wings as well, bleeing Caps red as I do. But am ready for a new dynasty for sure!
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