Head injuries are keeping professional hockey players off the ice for longer, indicating either more severe injuries or a tougher medical regime, according to a study released on Monday.
With the National Hockey League playoffs under way after a season where jarring head shots grabbed headlines, researchers said the number of concussions was leveling off, but the ice time a player loses more than doubles with each subsequent concussion, so there were more absences.
“Either concussions are becoming more severe or physicians are becoming more conservative with their management decisions,” said Brian Benson, a physician at the University of Calgary’s faculty of kinesiology and the lead author of the report. “We’re uncertain of the exact reason, but it’s certainly an observation of the study.”
The report now goes to the NHL’s concussion working group, which will examine ways to prevent concussions, or work out how to respond when they do happen.
“The goal in hockey in general is to reduce the risk of this potentially devastating injury without necessarily changing the nature of the game that millions love and enjoy watching,” Benson said. “You don’t want to make haphazard decisions, but you certainly want to base it on evidence and try to reduce this foreseeable, predictable risk.”
The league has faced many calls for tougher penalties for potentially career-ending hits to the head, including some this season after an incident last month in which Max Pacioretty of the Montreal Canadiens was injured after a body check that sent his head into a stanchion.
He suffered a concussion and fractured vertebra.
Sidney Crosby, Canada’s gold-medal goal-scorer in last year’s Winter Olympics, has been off the ice since suffering a concussion in January.
The researchers worked with the NHL and NHL Players’ Association to analyze 559 doctors’ reports of concussions suffered by players between 1997 and 2004. Their findings are published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
The researchers estimated that there were 1.8 concussions per 1,000 player hours, a number that leveled off through the study period.
The most-often reported symptom was headache at 71 percent, but players also reported dizziness, nausea, neck pain, fatigue, blurred vision or amnesia. About 18 percent lost consciousness.
For each recurrent concussion, the typical number of days lost increased by 2.25 times.
Benson has worked with the NHL and its players union since 1997 studying the medical science behind brain injury.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite