PHILADELPHIA -- Carolina Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette wouldn't give more detail about Scott Walker’s lower leg injury.
Ditto for Tim Gleason’s injury.
“He’s got a leg injury,” Laviolette said of Walker. “That’s about as far as we want to go with it.”
A decision last summer by NHL general managers paved the way for such vague responses. And under the glare of the Philadelphia media after Friday's 3-2 overtime victory over the Flyers, Laviolette defended the lack of details.
“I just told you we have leg injuries, so I don’t think we’re abusing the rule,” said Laviolette.
When asked if he felt the media and the fans deserved to know more about the health of players, Laviolette said, “ I think it really depends.”
He doesn’t want that type of information in the hands of opposing teams.
“I think a lot of times, the protection of the player has to figure into it. That’s the bottom line. You don’t want anybody getting any more hurt than they already are. If somebody decides to play the game with a broken hand, the last thing you want is for the other team to know they’ve got a broken hand.
“And that’s what you’re guarding against. It’s not like it’s top secret for any other reason. It’s purely to protect the player. It’d be nice to let the fans know. But unfortunately, if those people know, the opposition knows.”
Javier Serna has covered sports for The News & Observer since 2007. He previously covered growth for the North Raleigh News, and sports at The Truth in Elkhart, Ind. E-mail
Comments
I see the NHL's point
Sat, 11/29/2008 - 12:06 — gnfreyHockey has always had players that live in the gray areas of the rules.
Think if you let everyone know your star player (Eric Staal for example) had a shoulder injury. A player like Donald Brashear, Sean Avery or a coach sends his goon out to take a run at that player, or take a 2 minute penalty in exchange for knocking that player out of the game or several games maybe even the year. All of this just because you or the press NEED to know the exact location and severity of the injury. You may as well put a bullseye on that body part.
And to those of you that don't think that goes on pull your head out of the sand.
I agree
Mon, 12/01/2008 - 15:40 — HockeydogI agree, the reason teams don't want to broadcast player injuries is to prevent just what gnfrey brought up. Think our team is small and fragile? Just think if oter teams knew exactly where to hit a player who is playing hurt. I don't need to know bad enough to casue a player even more pain. That is just a fact of any contact sport. Feel lucky they even give which half of the body is in question!
bogus argument
Sat, 11/29/2008 - 11:10 — rmmeliTotally bogus argument. I thought I read that Tim Gleason had a sprained ankle. How are the opposing teams going to target that? If Scott Walker has a groin problem, I would love to know how what the opposition game plan would be to take advantage of that...on second thoughts I don't want to know :)
Somethings
Sat, 11/29/2008 - 07:54 — esteban1949are best unsaid, especially injuries. Why ? We the public at times know too much, then we wonder why we read stories of stalking players and hollywood folks...gee you'd think we the fans...would get a life huh ?
Go Canes !