Penguins Need To Improve Their Concussion Protocol (Penguins)

Penguins

Penguins Need To Improve Their Concussion Protocol

By Ryan Wilson

Dec 30, 2015 • 8:11 am

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Kris Letang will be making his return to the lineup this evening, but the way in which his latest head shot was handled leaves a lot to be desired

Then, I asked if he was concerned following the hit that he had sustained yet another concussion.

“Yeah,… he said. “I got dinged pretty hard there. It took me a little bit of a moment to get back to my senses. But I was fine after that.…

Or was he?

Letang was then asked about what problems he dealt with in Winnipeg the following day.

“I had a headache,… he said. “Hard headaches, as soon as I got hit. It went away.…

It was very irresponsible for Pittsburgh to put him back in that game. He took a clear head shot and has a very distinct history with head trauma. Coaches at the high school level shouldn't be making mistakes like that let alone a professional sports team in 2015. They need to be better.

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Pittsburgh enters tonight's contest against the Toronto desperately needing a result. Each loss now puts more and more pressure on the team to go on a hot streak later in the year. That isn't a realistic expectation considering they haven't strung together a three game winning streak since early November.

Tonight's opponent plays high event hockey and is usually not on the right side of the shot attempt volume. Pittsburgh has steadily improved in this area as the season has progressed and especially since the coaching change

As you can see Toronto games are usually pretty fun in the sense that things are happening both good and bad for them. Pittsburgh used to be clumped in with the Calgary, Columbus, Colorado and Vancouver grouping but have since moved across the chart in the proper direction. You will notice that direction is towards Dallas which is where they need to be to find their sustainable success given the roster construction of the team.

Matt Murray may be making his last start with the big club tonight. Pittsburgh is on a back to back in which Jeff Zatkoff will likely get the start against Detroit tomorrow and Fleury could potentially be ready for the weekend.

Other people who cover the NHL are starting to take notice of Matt Murray's play

Everything to this point is trending towards Matt Murray being an effective NHL goalie in the future. A very nice luxury for the Penguins to have.

Here are the lines

Sergei Plotnikov will be the healthy scratch. I don't think he should be playing behind Kevin Porter. The Plotnikov-Cullen-Fehr line has been very good in the role they've been given, but at some point Plotnikov needs to find the scoresheet. There is no doubt that his offensive woes have led to him being looked over for playing time. In the KHL Plotnikov put up 36 and 35 points the past two seasons. Those are good numbers for that league. The ability is there he just needs to execute.

James Reimer will get the nod for the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight and so far this year he is sitting atop the 2015-16 goaltending hierarchy with his play this year

And lastly today:

Yep, you read that correctly. NHL front offices are making decisions on NHL head coaches because of their height. That ranks right up there with Team USA making Olympic decisions based on dreams. These are the people that build NHL teams.

Thanks for reading!

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