Sporting News, The: Too much GRIT to QUIT

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Too much GRIT to QUIT

Larry Wigge

After a season of injuries to star players, hockey's marquee performers keep playing--even with the knowledge they could be one hit away from a career-ending injury

Flyers center Keith Primeau is walking out of the First Union Center in Philadelphia, arm-in-arm with his wife, Lisa. Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals is hours behind him. As soon as they get outside, Lisa punches Keith hard in the left arm.

"Are you crazy?" she says. "You get into a fight less than a week after you had to be carried off the ice on a stretcher with a concussion. That's crazy."

"Lisa," Keith says, hands gesturing wildly. "That punch right there was harder than any that Randy McKay threw at me. I'm OK. You know I have to be aggressive to play well."

For a second, it appears we're seeing a lost episode of I Love Lucy before Lisa Primeau smiles as the couple heads home.

Meanwhile, in the locker room, Primeau's teammates are calling him gutsy and courageous for being a warrior. They're still talking about how he took a big hit for the team in the previous series against Pittsburgh, spending just one day in the hospital with a concussion. He didn't miss a game.

The hit came on one of those plays you can't forget: Primeau being sideswiped at center ice by defenseman Bob Boughner, his head snapping back like a whiplash victim in a 70-mph collision on the freeway, Primeau's helmet flying off as his cranium crashes to the ice.

It hurt just to watch.

In hockey, there is a macho mind-set. Players figure they are indestructible. But their peers are getting bigger, stronger and faster. And the hits are getting harder. One hit, one misstep, one quick twist of fate, and a player's career could be over.

"With all of the equipment we have in the game today, you almost feel like Superman," Maple Leafs left winger Wendel Clark says. "You do things you know you shouldn't, but you feel no fear. And at this time of the year, it's even worse. No one wants to miss a chance to win it all, so we're all gladiators out there, trying to push the game to the edge.

"You hit first and think about what dangerous thing you've done later."

The list of players out for extended time with injuries in the playoffs reads like a who's who. And perhaps it's no coincidence they are all in the final four: Eric Lindros, Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic, Mike Modano, Joe Nieuwendyk, Derian Hatcher and Jere Lehtinen.

"We know the risks," says Lindros, who has been out for two months after sustaining his fourth concussion in two years. Lindros says he plans to play in the finals.

"I've been in the NHL 10 years. I missed last year's playoffs, and I don't plan on missing this year, too," he says, referring to the collapsed lung that kept him out of last year's postseason. "I've worked too hard to come back. My team is too close to getting to tire Stanley Cup finals for only the second time in my career to quit trying to come back now."

Taking a collision course

Primeau says he was never unconscious. The hit from Boughner was just one of many collisions hockey players face every game. "The trainer came out and asked me if I knew where I was," he recalls. "I said, `Forget that, who hit me?'

"I'm a father with four kids, and a husband. I know my priorities. I also know I'm a hockey player and it's my job to be on the ice at the most important time of the year, if I can."

Primeau did not play with the power of a 6-4, 225-pound man as the Flyers lost 4-1 in the first game of the Eastern Conference final to New Jersey.

Two nights later, it was give-and-take for Primeau, beginning with confrontations with Devils defensemen Scott Stevens and Ken Daneyko early in the game. The hits kept coming--until Primeau dropped his gloves and traded punches with McKay at center ice 11 minutes into the second period with the Devils leading, 2-1.

"When the fight was over, I thought about looking over where Lisa sits," Primeau says. "Once my helmet came off, I figured she would have her head buried in her hands, afraid to watch. But I couldn't face her then."

There was work to be done.

Primeau wound up with one assist in the Flyers' 4-3 comeback victory, but he was clearly one of the stars of the night, as he was in Game 3 as Philadelphia moved closer to the Finals.

"His head must be feeling fine," says Flyers goaltender Brian Boucher. "Unless it's completely mush and he's just not thinking."

Says Primeau, "I remember coming into the league when I was 18 and guys telling me to enjoy it ... because it goes by so fast. I've played 10 years in the NHL now, and I've been to the finals once (with Detroit in 1995) and semifinals another time. It doesn't happen every year. So I just don't want to miss this opportunity."

A head of mush notwithstanding.

No respect

Modano started this traumatic season flying head over heals into the boards after a dangerous check by Mighty Ducks defenseman Ruslan Salei. Modano came out of the corner looking like a rabid dog foaming at the mouth.

"It was no fun and totally needless," Modano says. "There was obviously no respect on Salei's part to shove me the way he did when I was so close to the boards. I could have broken my neck."

The NHL pays lip service to this issue, saying the players have to police themselves, that referees can call only so many penalties.

"Yeah, you tried to hurt other players, but that was in the heat of the battle with hard work and effort and physical play," former Blues defenseman Bob Plager says. "Now you see guys deliberately do things to harm another player, taking the easy way out."

The year of the freak accident

A player can make the same play a thousand times in his career--and then, suddenly, the next time it's the wrong play at the wrong time.

Like on November 20, when Montreal's Brian Savage tried to throw a check and suffered injuries to his vertebra and neck that nearly left him paralyzed.

"I couldn't feel anything in my back for a long time," Savage remembers. "I said to my wife, `Pinch me so I know this is not a bad dream.'"

After missing 44 games, Savage, who had been leading the league in goals for more than a month before the injury, came back to play in early March but wasn't the same.

Montreal was hit again with a traumatic injury in late January, when winger Trent McCleary slid out to block a shot by Flyers defenseman Chris Therien. Instead of McCleary blocking the shot with his legs or stomach, the puck hit him in the throat.

"I remember gasping for breath," McCleary said later. "The doctor cut into my throat to give me air before they brought the stretcher out to take me off the ice.

"I can't count the number of surgeries I've had since. But if the Canadiens give me a chance, I'll be back out there next year."

Lastly, Maple Leafs defenseman Bryan Berard, who often is criticized for not being gritty enough on defense, found Ottawa to be the site of another horrible accident. Berard was struck in the eye by the stick of the Senators' Marian Hossa, who was following through on a shot.

Critics were heard loud and clear, demanding everything from action against Hossa to forcing players to wear shields.

"I don't blame Marian for the incident," Berard says. "It was purely an accident. There was no intent to injure me. It was just a freak accident."

Berard, who still has fuzziness in the injured eye and might never be able to pass the NHLs sight requirement to play again, says he wouldn't support forcing players to wear the shield.

"I said earlier that I probably wouldn't wear a shield and that the stick that hit me in the eye likely would have still been able to slip under a shield because of the awkward situation to me," Berard says. "But truth be told, I'd probably try the shield. I've had too many nightmares about the incident not to give in to that now."

Equipment check

Yes, players are bigger and stronger, and the ice surface is still 200 by 85 feet. Yet the NHL is on a collision course with more injuries. More key players are sidelined. More salaries are wasted on the injured list.

"My career was basically ended by a routine hit in which I wound up hitting my head against this new seamless glass they are using in the NHL," Hall of Fame left winger and Colorado director of player personnel Michel Goulet says. "I was wearing a helmet, but that didn't matter. Because there are no seams, no breaks in the glass, they have to be affixed stronger to the boards.

"That means in buildings where they have seamless glass, you could injure a foot, arm, shoulder or head even worse when you pile into the boards or glass. It's a danger players shouldn't have to worry about, but they do. It's like running into a wall."

What's worse, in order to make shoulder pads and elbow pads safer, companies have begun using a stronger plastic.

"And while that's good for the player wearing those pads," Primeau says, "look out if you get hit by someone else wearing them.

"Some players know they can hurt another player with that equipment and they use it as a weapon, like some football players try to tackle with their helmets."

Silver lining

Even in the worst of situations, a positive can be found. In this case, it means players who have missed a lot of time while injured are fresher for the playoffs. "This is the best I've felt all year," Forsberg says. "It's not like I played a lot of games this season, you know?"

Shoulder surgery from last year's conference finals against Dallas kept Forsberg out until December. Assorted other injuries, such as a concussion and a slash to the back of his leg, limited the Avalanche's star center to 49 regular-season games.

Early in the playoffs, Forsberg was dominating, hitting opponents, shrugging off would-be hits and dazzling with his skating and playmaking skills.

"I agree with Keith and Eric. You can't change the way you play, even if you are risking another injury," Forsberg says. "I have to be aggressive to play. That's what opens up room on the ice for me and my teammates.

"Take Terrell Davis of the Broncos. His game is carrying the football up the middle as well as using his speed to the outside. If he didn't run up the middle, he wouldn't be the same player and Denver wouldn't have two Super Bowl rifles."

Lindros, still itching to play, says he will be ready.

"Someone asked me the other day if, after all of the inactivity, I had anything left in the gas tank," Lindros says before smiling. "Even with the high price of gas these days, you can be sure I will find a gas station that's open and fill it up to get another chance at playing in the Stanley Cup finals."

It's that mentality that excites teammates and fans alike and keeps hockey at this time of the year on the edge.