The Exception That Swallows The New NHL Rule

[Minstrel]

That's what some people are calling the "loophole" built into the wording of the new NHL rule on disclosing injuries.

It's always around now that players stop having specific or even general injuries and have simply "upper body" or "lower body" injuries. They also have been known to follow the opposites rule... if they say his right shoulder is injured it's actually a problem with his left ankle

Well it seems the league doesn't much care for these shenanigans and at the latest GM's meeting they agreed upon a new standard on reporting injuries that requires accuracy in reports.

Teams are now being told to identify the approximate location, nature and severity of the injury.

So, if a player injures his right arm, the team will have to report it as such, being mindful no specifics have to be divulged if the player may risk additional physical harm upon his return, in which case a more general means of describing the ailment will be accepted.

Yeah, that will make a difference in how injuries are reported... shhhhuuure! They claim they'll fine teams and that the matter will be seriously looked into to make sure. But yeah that bold text is definitely a case of "exception swallows the rule" as Dreger mentions was stated by one manager.

So look for many reports to come of "potentially recurring upper body injury that could be made worse by giving out more specific information" and "potentially recurring lower body injury that could be made worse by giving out more specific information"

[batdad]

I love the injury game. It is hilarious. I heard a new term for upper body injury....For Rick DiPietro...it was TOTAL body soreness...or General soreness in the upper region. I love it. Only Snow would come up with that.

Alain Vigneault---after Mitchell's concussion early in the year: "Well since it is too early to call it a Lower body injury, I will be honest...Willie has an upper body injury and is out day to day." Laughter....then says okay okay he has a cut fingernail.

[Joe]

I don't what the big deal is...I understand that if a team says what the injury specifically is, that other teams will try and 'aim' for that area to re-injure the player. What I don't get is why the league cares if they are specific or not...

[Taloncarde]

That is one thing I never got either. I understand that the specific nature of the injury should be reported to the NHL offices (to keep teams from abusing IR) but I don't understand why it should be released to the public.

[batdad]

The reason teams don't report injuries accurately is this:

The owners, team management, players, and everyone else....do not see the LEAGUE as protecting players from injury as it is. The respect for players playing hurt is not there...the rules are not there to protect star players, etc. Therefore if the NHL (ironically run by the owners) are not going to play by the rules and do things properly the management must do what they can to protect their assets...the players. So they lie.

However, do not kid yourself. 9 times out of 10 it takes about 15 seconds for a team to figure out where the other guy's injury is.

Just the notion of a player attacking a known injury on another player to reinjure or aggravate his injury PROVES beyond a reasonable doubt that the players do not respect each other anymore. But I cannot say I blame the teams for trying to protect their assets, when they know the injured guy is going back on the ice before he is healed.

Watch Naslund...there is no mention of any injury anywhere to him. Guess what...I guarantee that he is playing with at least 1 floppy shoulder, and maybe a bruised/cracked rib as well. No acceleration, no shot, no nothing. Way more than obvious. The Cancuks.....have said nothing about it. Markus admitted to a sore shoulder back in November or December...but now... says he is fine. BS.

[Taloncarde]

I certainly understand why they don't report accuratley, I just wonder why they even have to publicly report them at all.

[Thundercleese]

They 'have' to report them because it's become a norm in sports reporting. The journalists, especially those on 24-hour sports networks, need something to talk about, so they get whiny when they don't have much to talk about. More than that, this kind of thing became common because of football and it became common in football because of gambling. The relationship between football and sports betting is so significant that when betters/bookies demand accurate information about injuries (to increase their 'odds' of winning), the NFL gives it to them. This is why you never get the generalities you see in the NHL in the NFL. Not as many people bet on hockey (because it's a losing proposition, every time), so it's not as urgent that accurate injury information is made available. Other than that, there's no reason I can think of why a team should give that kind of information up.