Boston Bruins refuse to speculate right wing Nathan Horton’s return from concussion-NHL News
Boston Bruins’ right wing, Nathan Horton, is likely to miss the playoffs and it is no good news for the team, already facing some difficulties due to the injury problems to some other notable players.
Horton has missed as many as 36 games in the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season since suffering a concussion and there is no hope of his return in the second round.
Bruins’ general manager, Peter Chiarelli, while giving an equation of the player’s return, said that Horton would need at least two weeks for his clearance for contact.
If he is granted permission for contact now, his recovery and return will be well beyond the playoffs, he said while adding that the player’s availability remains a long-shot.
Chiarelli said:
"He's quite far off right now. I know he's skating, but he's having little bouts here and there of post-concussion symptoms. It's a long shot. I'm not going to rule him out, yet, but it's a long shot."
This is the earliest possible return that the GM has calculated for the winger, and given the amount of uncertainty that normally surrounds concussions, he might not able to recover and report back his fitness for another couple of months.
As of the latest, the player has been skating on his own for the last couple of weeks. There is no confirmation from either side if he is experiencing any symptoms after his daily workout.
In case of concussions, reoccurrence of headaches, drowsiness and some other symptoms are most common.
This is the reason that the management does not intend to be overoptimistic about Horton’s return and has refrained from speculating anything around his chances.
In no way, it is a good development for Bruins, who are already rueing the miss of a number of their players due to multiple injury problems.
They include defensemen, Adam McQuaid and Johnny Boychuk with an eye and knee problem, respectively. Both of them are day-to-day.
However, the participation of their goaltender, Tuukka Rask, is going to be most important in the playoffs. The player has missed 19 games but returned to the ice, recently.
The GM said of netminder:
"I think Tuukka is a little more than day to day. He's been pretty aggressive with his rehab. We'll see how he goes the next couple of days, but we certainly have a capable backup if we need him in Anton Khudobin."
The goaltender’s return might compensate the ousting of some other players to some extent.
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