James Guillory – USA TODAY Sports
Carolina Hurricanes center Jeff Skinner has been sidelined for a second time this season after a hard hit from Jared Cowen of the Ottawa Senators in his team’s Apr. 16 contest. While the Hurricanes aren’t using the dreaded “c” word this time, one look at the video makes it pretty obvious that there had to at least be some concern that Skinner might have one. He was also sidelined in February, and really hadn’t been the same player offensively since returning.
When Skinner went down with his first concussion this season, he was second on the Hurricanes with seven goals and 14 points through 13 games. In the 24 games since returning, Skinner had only managed to add five more goals and eight more points. He missed 16 games of the 2011-12 season with a concussion, and the Hurricanes have to be hoping that they have seen the last of this issue with their star forward.
When it comes to concussions, the league no longer takes chances. Fans saw Sidney Crosby miss a great deal of the last two seasons while dealing with concussion issues, and while he returned and had an immediate impact for the Pittsburgh Penguins he may sadly be the exception rather than the rule. The Boston Bruins saw Marc Savard suffer two concussion during the 2010-11 season, and he has not been able to return since then. Only time will tell which of these possible outcomes is in the cards for Skinner, but at the very least the Hurricanes would be wise to shut him down for the rest of the season since they no longer have anything left to play for.
Jonathan Katje is an NHL senior writer for Rant Sports. You can follow him on Twitter or add him to your circles on Google Plus.
