[Textcritic]

This discussion emerged in the Zetterberg thread and I think it would be better to continue it here ...

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Not sure what Prongering means but if there is any question about the seriousness of Mule's concussion just read this:

http://www.sportingnews.com/us/nhl/n...910rdl1rrz5i5i

So I have no idea how this could be considered a blemish on the Wings.

Originally Posted by Textcritic

There is a long highlight video of that game from 10 October 2015 included with that article. The hit occurred at the 14:05–mark of the second period. What is amazing is that Franzen gets up and brushes it off right away—he is laughing and joking with teammates; he appears to be fine. Franzen leaves the ice and goes to the dressing room, but then he returns to the game even before the end of the second period, and finishes the third on the powerplay.

Looking at how much he is struggling now it really serves to reinforce how serious even the apparently benign head injuries can be, and how difficult their severity is to diagnose. When you watch that highlight package I very much doubt that anyone would predict from this an end to Franzen's career, and quite possibly the quality of the rest of his life. This is scary stuff.

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Also reinforces why you can't possibly make a diagnosis on whether someone's brain is impaired by asking them to tell you if their brain is impaired.

That's what is so ####ed up to me about the concussion issue. When the potential injury is to critical faculties, it is negligent to then rely on those critical faculties as a means of justifying exposure to future injury.

People with brain injuries often cannot accurately describe the nature or severity of their brain injury because the brain is injured.

I don't know what mechanism should be put in place to protect athletes from themselves, but ultimately they can't be relied upon to judge the extent of their own injuries.

This is exactly what the problem boils down to: The NHL has simply done a deplorable job in addressing the severity of concussions and the real danger of CTE. The current NHL Concussion Protocol is laughably ineffective, as it continues to rely on the judgment of individual teams, coaches, and the players themselves to assess their own health. I think this is from where extreme measures like those proposed by Lindros and Dryden stem—if the League is not going to mandate and enforce a rigorous and sensible procedure for handling minor head injuries, then it should come as no surprise that the elimination of body checking has now become a viable talking point.