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Originally Posted by powderjunkie
2. The second story is that he dazed/woozy/foggy and doesn't really remember or only has a vague idea of what happened. Firstly, I don't think we've had any concrete statements directly from Wideman, and everything related to this has been purplemonkeydishwashered through media talking heads. (I haven't read the transcripts yet, so I'm sure there is clearer evidence there, but to this point all discussion has been based on speculation)
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Oh my god buddy. I've quoted the testimony of the expert doctor that the NHLPA hired as the reason.
In one situation Wideman is saying that he looked up, saw Don Henderson last second and couldn't get out of the way. A very fair possibility.
What he told his expert witness, according to the expert witness testimony (not purplemonkeydishwashered) was that he "
vaguely remembers skating to the bench. He remembers some incident occurring, but
he does not recall who he hit [or] how he hit the individual. " (Direct quote).
So in one story he just accidentally hits Don Henderson, no biggie. In the other one, the story he told to get the concussion diagnosis, he was telling his doc that he can't even remember who he hit.
Those aren't remotely the same. This isn't the same as falling on ice on the way to the supermarket and not remembering which foot slipped. It's the equivalent of you coming back 2 days from now and saying you remember slipping on a banana peel while blaming the banana industry.
Read the report. The primary defence is no longer Wideman accidentally skated into Henderson. The NHLPA retained two experts to address
"whether the Player's ability to formulate an intention to make contact with the [linesman] was
adversely affected at. . . the time of the events and, if so, the extent to which his ability to formulate an
intention was affected." They testified about impulse control, situational awareness, confusion, anger issues, etc. that come from concussions.
Again, from one of Wideman's expert witness mouth (not some media talking head):
Quote:
"it is my view that Mr. Wideman's usual capacity to exercise his
judgment and to control his impulses was significantly affected by the head trauma that he experienced
during the January 27, 2016 game for the period immediately after that incident. "
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The NHLPA and Wideman rolled the dice by making this a concussion issue, no longer just incidental contact. Wideman, I believe, played up his concussion symptoms to the experts, who had previously been hired by the NHLPA regarding concussions, who had no interest in actually looking at the details (of note, they didn't ask the medical staff there at the time of the incident and didn't take Wideman out of the game - perhaps another issue). Wideman gave them the answers he knew they wanted to hear. When asked what he remembers of the incident at the time he told him he vaguely remembers..blah blah blah.
It's getting close to a murder defence pleading not guilty by reason of insanity while the murderer is saying he's mentally stable but just accidentally pushed that old lady down the stairs. That's not going to work out well.
Wideman has pretty much become a pawn in a game of chess between the NHL and NHLPA regarding the concussion issue. Still doesn't excuse him.