During the 2009 Western Conference Final, Blackhawks player Martin Havlat received a crushing blow from Detroit Red Wings player Niklas Kronwall. The hit left Havlat unconscious and and without movement. Two days later, he was back on the ice but only to leave the game after suffering another hit. Some may have forgotten about this, but it’s back in the news because of a lawsuit against the NHL.
An unnamed team doctor questioned the the Blackhawks’ handling of the head injury and sent an email to Dr. Willem Meeuwisse, a member of the NHL’s Concussion Working Group. The 2009 email was unsealed by a federal judge on Tuesday according to a TSN report.
“I am once again disappointed in my colleagues in the (National Hockey League Team Physicians Society),” the unnamed team doctor wrote, according to the TSN report. “We all sit around and talk and talk about concussion management. Then it’s the playoffs, someone suffers an obvious loss of consciousness and is back playing in less than 48 hours.”
“This same Chicago player was hit hard again today and was unable to continue in the game. Another example of situational ethics. Our only job is to protect the players from harm including when the player is ‘clearing’ himself to play. We must be their advocate regardless of what the coach or general manager thinks.”
Meeuwisse removed the doctor’s name from the emails because the comments could cause quite a stir.
Judge Susan Richard Nelson unsealed some other documents in the lawsuit, including statements from league commissioner Gary Bettman from a general managers’ meeting in 2013-2014. Bettman said the media was in a “hysterical period” in reporting concussions and demands that the league do more to watch and prevent head injuries.
In what seems like the commissioner wanting to sweep this under the rug he wrote, “We should not have this debate publicly whether you support it or not. You can do what you want but it is being made more important than it is. Ken Dryden’s book and Bobby Orr’s books come out with conflicting views. Having this public debate is not good. Please don’t speak to the media about it. Helping the media with the controversy of the issue doesn’t help things.”
The league continues to deny any links between CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) and the hitting and fighting associated with the sport. The NHL’s director of officiating Stephen Walkom had this to say just this week, “Ya love it, much to the dismay of the tree huggin, never played sport, leftist doctors…that soon won’t let us climb stairs for fear of concussion…”
The Blackhawks have declined to comment at this time.
