i had another conversation with the person affiliated with the penguins. i was had been reluctant to ask him about sid's concussion but i broached the subject. he was quite willing to discuss it, did not seem sensitive about it at all. he said ideally dr. burk would have recognized sid's injury in the winter classic and held him out, but that the problem, generally speaking, is hockey players are extremely reluctant to admit to injuries. worst of all athletes, he said. "they are afraid to look like p******." sid didnt mention that he was having any problems, and then the hedman hit happened. he didnt assign blame, just said it was a rough situation. he said that was a very stressful time for burk. also said that it was probably just a concussion (forget to ask him if he thinks sid's had one vs more concussions) with some soft tissue damage, and that spinal concussion theory seems unlikely. he said that "chiropracter in LA" (Carrick) may have had some weird therapies that suibjectively helped sid but, again, that it was probably just a concussion.
also mentioned that burk's contract was up with the pens when he was "fired," that he just didnt have his contract renewed. troy crosby was the one to push hard for a new medical staff, and i pushed him further asking if troy was involved/interfered alot with the pens and he said no, that the only instance he knew of troy getting involved with the pens was when the medical staff was due for a new contract. had positive things to say about troy and said he's definitely not meddling.
once again said sid was good but nervous guy. he would get about 3 second opinions for everything, medical and non-medical. seems like a product of having a lot of people in his camp and having microphones shoved in his face since he was ten. he thinks the pressure the past few years has been getting to sid somewhat, that the lack of success recently is bothering him. he said the oft-repeated line that sid could use a vocal veteran like guerin/dupuis to take some of the leadership of off sid, which made me cringe a bit. but dismissed the idea that sid would want out of pittsburgh. aside from the above, nothing but glowing remarks about sid.
he also said he thinks sid/locker room miss dupuis, that he was the sort of guy who would simply and sternly tell players to knock of dumb penalties, that he had a lot of credibility in the lockerroom. he compared/contrasted dupuis with roberts and tocchet, who had a similar sort of role but they would swear and scream and flip out on people. he said roberts would cuss you out about taking a bad penalty, he didnt care who or how many people were in the room. tocchet was similar, he flipped out on people when they were undisciplined, that in addition to swearing, players would be afraid tocchet was going to fight them. he said tocchet would "fight his own mother if it would help the team." he said both tocchet/robrets were effective because they were respected players and practiced most of what they preached. he said barnaby tried to do similar things with getting in peoples faces about discipline but then he would go do something stupid himself so the lockerroom didnt listen/respect him.