A new season of minor hockey has just begun for the Minto and Clifford organizations.
Most hockey parents want their child to be the next Sidney Crosby. That would be in the aspect of his superb on-ice skill, not the scary concussion he’s struggled to return from.
Crosby, after initialing sustaining a concussion at the NHL’s Winter Classic on New Years Day 2011, didn’t show any symptoms and returned to play against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Jan. 5. A second blow to the head has left him on the sidelines for 10 months and counting. It’s because he didn’t show any symptoms after the first hit that he returned to action, explained concussion researcher Dr. Craig Coghlin to a group of minor hockey parents, coaches and trainers.
“Just because someone is feeling better right away doesn’t mean squat,” Coghlin said at a recent information session in Listowel.
He explained that a concussion is essentially a brain injury: “It’s not a broken leg, it’s an invisible injury because it’s the brain.”
There are multiple ways they can occur in hockey, not just the typical shoulder or elbow to the head in a collision. A puck to the head or even falling certain ways and impacting other parts of the body can send a jarring effect up through the neck and cause the brain to impact the inside of the skull.
“It does not have to be a hit to the head to get a concussion,” reiterated Coghlin, a well-spoken chiropractor and strength coach with an office inside of Dynafit in Listowel.
He used the analogy of a sponge inside a bucket to represent the brain inside the skull.
Individual cases can be so different. Some have a rapid onset of symptoms, some don’t appear for days. Generally symptoms resolve quickly – typical concussion recovery time can be seven to 10 days – but not in all situations. He cited Crosby as ostensibly going against both of those points.
It’s a functional injury, not a structural one, so a CT scan won’t illustrate the problem.
“No imaging will show it, but it can change the way we think, act, remember,” he continued.
A concussion may or may not involve a loss of consciousness....please read more in this weeks Minto Express