Monday night saw the second concussion since Saturday night as Buffalo Sabres winger Jason Pominville was taken off the ice on a stretcher. He was found to have sustained a concussion, just two days after St. Louis Blues power forward Cam Janssen sustained a freak concussion, himself.
Pominville was hit from behind along the boards by Blackhawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson in the first period of Chicago’s first win of the season in a 4-3 victory over Buffalo. He was diagnosed with a concussion in the building, and received 7-8 stitches over his eye from a gash due to the hit. Pominville lied on his back for 15 minutes after his head violently hit the glass, but was talking and moving his arms. "It was a terrible hit," Sabres left-winger Thomas Vanek said. "It was to the head and from behind, but Hjalmarsson's not a dirty player."
Pominville’s teammates rightfully defended their guy by dog-piling the Chicago defenseman, but the jarring and fighting was put aside quickly when they noticed how shaken their teammate actually was. Hjalmarsson does have a pretty clean track record in his young NHL career, but received a 5 minute major and game misconduct per NHL regulation due to the severity of the injury.
"Everything happened so fast," Hjalmarsson said. "My intention wasn't to hurt him. You never want to see someone laying on the ice like that."
The hit itself was with tremendous force, however Hjalmarsson is a very fast skater and was looking to keep the play in the offensive zone. The puck was on its way to the stick of the unsuspecting Pominville, but he got his bell rung hard before he could make a play. Although this may have just been a bit of an overzealous attempt to keep the play alive and spark his team, Hjalmarsson may well be receiving a suspension after the NHL’s ruling against hitting vulnerable players up high. Although it was a body check (and not a direct head blow), it was from behind, he was unsuspecting, and some might argue Hjalmarsson did slightly leave his feet. St. Louis Blues head coach Lindy Ruff did not want to speculate on what will happen next to the Swedish defenseman.
"It'll be interesting," Ruff said of the Hawks defenseman. “That was bad. He’s not that type of player but he made a mistake obviously,” he said.” He caught a player in a tough spot."
Joel Quenneville, head coach of the Blackhawks, had more of a firm stance on his player’s actions.
"To me, you could argue that it wasn't even a penalty," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. "I don't want to see anybody go down and get hurt like that, but Hjalmarsson wasn't even looking at the guy, he was playing the puck. There was no intent at all on the hit."
Regardless of the NHL’s viewpoint, Pominville is a tremendous loss for the Sabres going forward. The crafty winger entered the game as the Sabres active team leader in consecutive games played at 335. The duration of his time out is unknown at this point, and he will be evaluated further.
"Poms has been our iron man," Ruff said. "You're just praying that everything's okay."
St. Louis Blues grinder Cam Janssen also fell to a concussion and sternum contusion with a very forceful collision, but his was with that of his own teammate in a freak accident. Janssen was going after a big hit on Flyers defenseman Oskars Bartulis late in the second period of Saturday night’s 2-1 overtime victory (for the Blues) as power forward monster Brad Winchester was doing the same. Instead of either player making much of an impact on Bartulis, Janssen caught a misfortunate elbow from his teammate to the head resulting in a concussion.
Fortunately for all involved (especially Winchester) the concussion appears to be more on the mild side as he is reported to be out for two weeks, and will undergo further evaluation following that duration of time.
"It looked like two trains coming down the track and (Bartulis) was able to jump off the bridge," Blues coach Davis Payne said. "I think it was a combination of the hit, the stick, a little bit of the ice, it was a pretty hefty collision there."
Cam Janssen is not a points scoring type of player, but he has a huge impact on the way his team plays and is very effective in more ways than one. His most notable asset is the ability to beat up on opponents who cross his path, which has made him a very resourceful player through his career. Last year Janssen racked up 190 penalty minutes through 43 games which was good for a two-way tie for 5th in the NHL even despite the fact that he had a considerable amount of game less played.
Janssen re-signed to a one-year contract in July with the Blues, and he will be ‘fighting’ all year long to get another extension, which is something he’s completely comfortable with.
- Kendall Grubbs
No comments:
Post a Comment