I'm posting this because it seems that a good number in the AHL are taking the same stance.. and good for them! It's about time that players can't got after returning players and where they had been injured.. Now, I mean, I know who's injured and where, but don't ask.
On injuries, don’t ask, don’t tell
01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, November 2, 2008
Mum’s the word, but you didn’t hear it from them.
Not from anyone in the National Hockey League, which is enjoying its first year of a don’t-ask-we’re-not-going-to-tell policy about injuries. Shhhhhh. Don’t let anyone know about a “lower-body injury,” which could be a torn anterior cruciate ligament or a stubbed toe.
The honchos who came up with this plan weren’t using their upper bodies, the part that goes above the shoulders. It has only helped make the league look foolish.
The rationale is that if an injury is announced explicitly, guys on the other team will target that particular body part and hurt the player. Lou Lamoriello, for our money the smartest guy in the league, acknowledged as much to reporters when this policy was adopted during the Stanley Cup Finals: “Come on, we’re all big boys; we all know exactly what happens out there.”
Fair enough. Also, we understand the thinking that the salary cap makes it difficult to replace injured players.
Still, this is just silly. For one thing, it underestimates the power of the hockey grapevine. If injury details leak out to Canada’s TSN, you can bet they’re circulating in the opposition locker room. On top of that, every sprained ankle now becomes Watergate.
There is a cloak-and-dagger antagonism between the league and the media — and, by extension, the fans. It has become just something else to joke about.
The Islanders have turned this new practice into a comic art form, what with their handling of the Rick DiPietro saga. But it’s happening all over. Wild star Marian Gaborik was placed on injured reserve with a “lower body injury.” And the greatest current NHL star of all, Sidney Crosby, left the Penguins game late Thursday night with an “undisclosed injury.”
What’s next, medical records being transported by Brinks truck?
Jarome Iginla of the Flames, one of the league’s best players, said his team knew that Nashville forward Jason Arnott was coming off a finger injury last week. “We’re trying to be hard on him because it’s his first game back and he plays so well against us,” Iginla said. “But no one made one comment about, ‘Let’s go slash his hands’ or anything like that.
“Personally, I’m not that worried about it,” he said, “because usually I felt they’re trying to hit me anyway, they’re trying to run me into the corner whether my shoulder is good or not.”
It is almost too obvious to mention Pete Rozelle, but it is so pertinent. The former National Football League commissioner decreed that every team report every injury every week. The NFL is very sensitive to gambling, point spreads and the havoc that could arise if some people knew about injuries and others didn’t.
Obviously, the NHL is not a bettors’ paradise. Still, it is worth noting that pro football is a brutal physical sport, and word is the NFL is getting along OK after 40 years of full disclosure.