This time, the Devils are actually admitting the possibility of a recent concussion. This time, this January, it’s Scott Stevens, not Oleg Tverdovsky.
Think they’re worried? Pat Burns guffawed about the hardship of playing weeks, not days, without their captain.
“Does writing your story without a pen make it tough?” Burns asked.
But if it is determined that post-concussion syndrome erupted after Stevens was weakened by flu, they could be without the 39-year-old longer than the 7-10 days Lou Lamoriello said he’ll be resting, off skates. Under that scenario, it would be several days of practice before he’d play again, and that means nearly February.
“I think they have to start learning how to play without Scott,” Bobby Holik said.
“We still haven’t got all the tests back. His resistance has been low, and we’ve examined everything. After a couple days of flu, you look into other things,” GM Lou Lamoriello said last night as Stevens missed his fourth straight game. The Devils’ 3-3 tie at the Garden was the first time since 1992, 59 regular season and 19 playoff games, that Stevens sat out a Ranger game.
“He could have something where he got hit, a little result of a concussion,” Lamoriello said.
The immediate suspect was the puck he took in the ear April 28 in Tampa, an injury he said he felt well into the summer as far as equilibrium went. He also absorbed a big hit from Ottawa’s Vaclav Varada Nov. 8, almost exactly the time his game dropped from Norris Trophy caliber to merely excellent.
“We are going to make sure he rests the next 7-10 days,” Lamoriello said. “The only thing we could come up with is that he got hit at some point.”
Lamoriello said Stevens says he is not experiencing headaches. “We’re not saying post-concussion syndrome,” Lamoriello said. “We’re treating it like we don’t know.
“He will be the determining factor.”
Last year, Tverdovsky paid his own way to see specialist Dr. Karen Johnston after he suspected post-concussion syndrome while the Devils rejected that diagnosis. Johnston’s opinion was that Tverdovsky was suffering the after-effects of a concussion, and the defenseman missed more than a month. Tverdovsky was not offered a new contract by the Devils last summer and is playing in Russia.
Lamoriello said although Stevens will not face the Caps tomorrow, he will be on hand for Scott Stevens Day at the Meadowlands.
