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USA TODAY ARTICLE JANUARY 16, 2009
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/hockey/nhl/2009-01-16-2018525195_x.htm
Gagne returns to pre-concussion form
PHILADELPHIA — Simon Gagne hated the mornings he would wake up with that
familiar pounding headache.
He couldn't even blame a night of revelry.
The throbbing would surface, and no pain reliever would cure it. His
neck ached, and there were days when he felt woozy or had blurred
vision.
All Gagne wanted was to grab a stick and play hockey again for the
Philadelphia Flyers. But even when he did skate, well, good luck keeping
track of the whizzing puck.
Missing the playoffs, losing in the playoffs, none of it pained Gagne
like the agony of living with a concussion.
"Last year," Gagne said, "was a tough situation. Tough. I wouldn't wish
it on anyone."
The head injuries limited Gagne to 25 games and he missed Philadelphia's
run to the Eastern Conference final. Gagne had nagging fears about his
future, about what another traumatic hit to the head might mean for his
career. He wondered if he could resume the high-scoring pace that made
him an All-Star and an Olympian.
Those doubts all seem behind Gagne, for now at least. While Gagne has
cooled a bit from one of the fastest starts of his career, the quick
forward has 18 goals and 42 points in 41 games this season. And the
Flyers are in the thick of a tight race in the Atlantic Division, one
point behind the New York Rangers headed into Friday night's game at the
Florida Panthers.
For Gagne, the miserable side effects and cobwebs in his nerves have
vanished.
"The way I feel now is back to where it used to be," Gagne said.
Gagne, who turns 29 next month, considers himself lucky. He might not
even be playing this season had he not caught a local TV report about a
doctor who eschews traditional anti-inflammatory drugs, cortisone
injections, and surgery in favor of an approach that stimulates natural
healing processes to strengthen joints, tendons and ligaments.
Gagne hoped the treatment would cure his chronic neck pain and headaches
and, after checking with the Flyers trainer, met with
Dr. Scott
Greenberg last April. Greenberg, a Cherry Hill, N.J., physician, didn't
like what he saw.
"The damage that Gagne had was very significant," he said.
The nerves running from Gagne's neck and head, neck and shoulder blades
and other joints, ligaments and tendons were all damaged. That was the
cause of the dizzy spells, the loss of balance and blurred vision.
Greenberg's approach is to repair the joints and nerves with pinpoint
injections into selected areas of the spine and the symptoms clear.
The treatment is called prolotherapy. The shots, a concoction that
sparks the body's immune system, regenerate the damaged tissue and
strengthen joints. Greenberg said Gagne's neck is now as strong as it
was before he was hurt. The player needed 20 to 30 injections in his
neck his first few visits, but he hasn't visited Greenberg since
November. Gagne might go again around the All-Star break for a checkup.
His neck and spine stable, Gagne proclaimed himself "good to go" the
rest of the season.
All he has to do is look at recent Flyers history to know his day-to-day
life could be much worse. Former Flyers captains Eric Lindros and Keith
Primeau both had their promising careers curtailed because of
concussions and still suffer from post-concussion trauma.
Gagne has had two minor setbacks this season - a bout with the flu and
dehydration in December, and he was the victim of a blindside hit
against Vancouver that caused a shoulder injury and kept him out of two
games.
A scary moment came in November when Montreal's Alexei Kovalev plowed
his shoulder into Gagne's head. Gagne was able to shake off the hit, but
any shot near his neck or head is an immediate cause for concern.
Gagne believed Kovalev deliberately targeted his head and shared his
view with NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell.
If Gagne had his way, shoulder-to-head hits would be banned from the
game.
"If you get hit shoulder-to-head, you're going to have a concussion no
matter what," Gagne said. "You see it too much. Almost every night you
look at highlights on TV and you see someone get knocked out."
He also talked with Glenn Healy, the player affairs director for the NHL
players' association, about what could be done to better protect the
players. Hockey will never become a non-violent sport, but Gagne and
others feel it could be a safer one.
Healy said the NHLPA is working on adding soft caps, which are already
on elbow pads, to shoulder pads to reduce the impact of hits. Last
season, of the 65 diagnosed concussions, Healy said 39 were from a
shoulder-to-head blow.
On the NHLPA's fall tour of all the teams, videos were shown of players
deciding not to finish their body checks in a situation where an
opposing player was vulnerable or the outcome had already been decided.
Healy also does not want to see players launching themselves at
someone's head.
"That's going to take a lot longer to change that cultural view of how
we play the game," Healy said.
The NHLPA hopes to sit down with the league this summer and discuss
possible solutions or punishments.
Gagne was diagnosed with three concussions (two in juniors, one early in
his career with the Flyers) before last season. He suffered a fourth
concussion after his jaw crashed into the shoulder of Panthers
defenceman Jay Bouwmeester early last season. Gagne returned after only
four games, then was hurt again and missed the next 26 games. He was
reinjured in February and didn't play again.
Gagne eventually learned that he didn't suffer three more concussions,
but that the first one in October never healed and was aggravated with
each additional blow.
Gagne says he might have returned too quickly from the initial hit and
wonders whether last season would have been different had he been more
patient.
"Until you go through a tough time like that, you know nothing about
concussions," Gagne said. "Now I know the brain takes a lot of time to
heal."
But this pre-season, Flyers coach John Stevens was so encouraged by
Gagne's play that he had no reservations about playing him his regular
minutes.
"We didn't expect him to get back to where he was so quickly," Stevens
said.
Gagne totalled 31 points in his first 22 games and was on pace to at
least match his career high of 47 goals set in 2005-06. Gagne's numbers
have tailed off lately and the winger has gone eight straight games
without a goal entering Friday's game.
Some of the scoreless slump can be blamed on the shoulder injury.
Another factor is just simple fatigue. Gagne, the Flyers' first-round
pick in the 1998 draft, is still working his way back to his physical
peak after a seven-month layoff.
"People forgot, I didn't play for a while last year," he said. "For me
to play at that level again, it takes time to get back."
When he's playing, Gagne can't think about absorbing a hard hit, he just
has to attack the net and play as hard as he did in an Olympic or
playoff game.
He does admit to a different approach this season. Gagne comes to the
rink to have fun, be able to play all his shifts and feel good when the
game is over. He's not concerned with goals, points and other personal
achievements. So far, that style has worked out fine.
"It's just fun being back to normal and being able to play the game that
I love to play," Gagne said. |
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