Trouba ‘feeling pretty darn good,’ but undergoing concussion evaluation

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This article was published 18/03/2018 (2224 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg Jets defenceman Jacob Trouba is in the NHL’s concussion protocol after being rocked with a heavy hit in Sunday night’s game against Dallas.

Coach Paul Maurice confirmed after Monday’s practice at Bell MTS Place that the blue-liner is undergoing further evaluation.

“He was feeling pretty darn good when he came in (Monday), which tells you nothing in these situations. We need to get a few days on him. Better to feel good than not, but it will take a few days before we fully understand the extent of it,” Maurice said.

“He’ll see the specialist (Monday) and they’ll give us a good idea of where we’re at today. It’s usually two or three days before you find out which direction it goes. Whether it’s going to be longer term. Not always, but it’s happened in the past.”

Trouba had just returned to the Jets lineup after missing 20 games with a sprained ankle. He was playing in just his second game when Dallas forward Jamie Benn levelled him with a hit in the opening minute of the third period.

Trouba fell hard to the ice, then had his legs buckle as he tried to get up and skate off. He was helped by teammates to the dressing room and didn’t return.

“You don’t get diagnosed with a concussion post-game. They’ll keep you out of a game because you have concussion symptoms and they list all of them. But you need to go see a doctor or specialist who handles that and then they’ll pass down, ‘Yes, we believe he has a concussion.’ That’s where I think it’s at, we just don’t have final confirmation on that,” said Maurice.

There are multiple stages to concussion protocol, essentially small tests an athlete must pass. The first involves light physical activity, such as riding a stationary bike.

“What happens is you start waiting days to see if he keeps those symptoms. What’s changed over the last few years is they’ve found players can be active while they still have some symptoms, if they’re slight enough they can get lightly on the bike,” said Maurice.

“From that it just progresses, where you can get on the bike, push yourself real hard, if there’s no symptoms you put them on the ice the next day lightly and you move through. So there’s no defined timeline, but there’s a procedure you have to go through.”

Winnipeg has plenty of experience dealing with concussions this season. Goalie Michael Hutchinson is currently dealing with his second of the year, suffered last week in Nashville. He’s currently riding a bike but hasn’t resumed skating. Goalie Steve Mason has come back twice from concussion this season and is now out with a knee injury.

Defenceman Dmitry Kulikov was also knocked out of the lineup with a concussion earlier in the year after being hit from behind.

Speaking of Kulikov, he’s now dealing with a back injury and was slated to have surgery Monday. But Maurice said that has now changed.

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“So he had planned and met and had a couple of opinions on his injury. Had met with surgeons. It’s never clearly one way or the other that he should go. So when he met for his final consult, again it’s the player’s choice with what he wants to do. He’s going to forgo the surgery, there are other remedies with this. So he didn’t have surgery today,” said Maurice.

The original belief was it would be eight weeks until there was an update on Kulikov’s prognosis. Without surgery, that timeline is considerably less.

“We’re probably looking at four weeks now until the first update on where he’s at, three or four weeks. And hopefully everything settles down, heals and he’s a player for us sooner,” said Maurice. “It’s one of two options and how to treat the injury. And he’s been through it before so he understands it very well. But it’s not a definite thing that he has to have surgery.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg

Mike McIntyre
Sports reporter

Mike McIntyre grew up wanting to be a professional wrestler. But when that dream fizzled, he put all his brawn into becoming a professional writer.

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