It’s no secret that the sport of hockey has a concussion problem on its hands. From youth all the way up to professional ranks, the injury is becoming more prevalent as the sport is played at an increasingly faster and more physical pace. That is what hockey fans pay to come to the rink and watch, but at what price?
As research has advanced through the years we are learning more and more about the dangers that concussions pose to players in hard-hitting sports such as hockey or football. The effects on football players have been long documented, but as people are starting to realize, hockey athletes are at the same risk.
The Wisconsin men’s hockey team sustained its fair share of concussions this past season and illustrated just how difficult the injury is to treat because no two concussions are the same. Sophomore forward Jason Clark received a concussion in late December and was back playing in early January. Sophomore forward Jefferson Dahl suffered one and only missed two games. But when junior forward Derek Lee got one he ultimately missed six weeks of action.
“Everybody reacts to these injuries differently…some guys seem to rebound quickly even from more severe hits, but some guys take a little bit longer,” said Andy Hrodey, the UW assistant athletic trainer who works with the men’s hockey team. “We have to take each one individually and make sure those symptoms are gone before they return.”
Hrodey stressed the importance of taking time when it comes to concussions, as returning from the injury before the athlete is 100 percent symptom free can potentially have dangerous long-term effects as the effects of concussions intensify the more you receive.
“We know that you’re more susceptible to a more severe injury [if you return to soon],” Hrodey said. “Research has shown, and also we’ve seen cases in the NHL and NFL where if guys ignore these little symptoms and continue to play when they have a headache or dizziness or balance problems, we know that there is more likelihood of permanent damage to their brain.”
Former NHL player Bob Probert is an example of the long-term effects concussions can have on athletes. Probert engaged in 246 fights in his NHL career, taking countless hits to the head in the process. Probert died in July of 2010 at the age of 45—just nine years after he retired from hockey.
While Probert died of heart failure, examinations of his brain tissue found the debilitating degenerative disease—chronic traumatic encephalopathy—that had previously been discovered in 20 deceased former football players. CTE was also found posthumously in the brains of former NHLers Derek Boogaard and Rick Martin. The deaths of former enforcers Rick Rypien and Wade Belak earlier this year further raised concerns about CTE.
CTE strikes in stages and symptoms can show themselves quickly after the injury or decades later. Stage one is characterized by early symptoms such as dizziness, confusion and headaches as well as psychotic symptoms. Stage two brings memory loss, erratic behavior and the initial symptoms of Parkinson’s disease before progressing to Alzheimer’s-like dementia, signs of Parkinson’s disease and speech difficulty in stage three.
For Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves, hockey’s concussion problem and the potential effects this injury can have long-term, hits home in more ways than one.
Eaves’s son Patrick suffered a concussion Nov. 26 playing for the Detroit Red Wings and has not yet physically been able to return to action. Patrick Eaves told DetroitRedWings.com in February that he experiences headaches “pretty much all the time” as well as other post-concussion symptoms.
Mike Eaves suffered 10 concussions in his brief eight-season NHL career, and finally retired in October 1985 after receiving his last one and realizing that something was wrong.
“When I had my last one and I got hit, it wasn’t even a bad hit, but I remember thinking somethings not right, I didn’t get hit that hard and I’m feeling like this?” Eaves said. “That’s when I called my wife and said there’s something wrong here. I internally knew because of my history that there was something wrong.”
Eaves said that when he played today’s concussion protocols weren’t in place and players came back from the injury much too soon because of the culture of being a hockey player and wanting to get back on the ice as soon as possible.
“The thing is as an athlete, there was no question that you were coming back,” Eaves said of his playing days. “You’re going to deal with this. You got a little headache? You take some aspirin. You don’t want to lose your job. That was the mentality. They give you some smelling salts and you shake it off and you get back in there.”
“The protocol that’s in line now protects the athletes so they don’t feel that pressure,” he added. “I could have played longer had I had the protocol that’s in place now because I came back early a bunch of times.”
Eaves mentioned that he has seen the results of the autopsies performed on former football and hockey players that suffered a series of concussions or head trauma injuries that show some serious issues, and he said he wonders what effect the multiple concussions he suffered during his playing career will have down the road.
“Long-term I’ve often thought what’s going to happen when I’m a couple decades older,” Eaves said. “Am I going to feel effects from the multiple concussions I had in my life? I don’t know, only time will tell.”
