Michael Raffl, Incredibly, Doesn’t Have Concussion After Collapsing On Bench
Sometimes, you see something like this happen – player collapses on bench, ice, or field – and it’s an obvious concussion situation. Or death situation. But after Michael Raffl caught a pretty light (as far as elbows go) elbow to the jaw on Saturday and passed out on the bench, he’s passed concussion protocols.
There’s no real jerking motion on his head or neck, the elbow doesn’t really seem to make all that much contact, and Raffl skated to the bench without incident. So what the hell happened? Raffl said it’s happened before:
“I broke my jaw when I was 18 and the exact, same thing happened. It was during a hockey game … [This time] I got elbowed in the corner there, felt a little dizzy and was trying to make my way back to the bench to take a seat and the next thing, I woke up and everybody is freaking out …
The guys are coming with the wheelchair and I looked at it and said, ‘I’m not gonna sit in this wheelchair,’ … I took two steps, and it kinda came back, dizzy again and said, ‘OK, I’ll take it.'”
Today, Raffl said it was just “a shot on my chin and just a knockout point I guess.” So, not a concussion, but he lost consciousness. Sometimes things just happen, but if I was the Flyers I’d wanna … you know … keep an eye on his brain.