The road to recovery...

By Jon


The Miami Herald has a pretty good (and quick) read on Richard Zednik's return to the ice.

It's hard to believe that it happened seven months ago. With the Kevin Everett ceremony during last Sunday's Bills game and now with Zednik's return, it has to make you feel pretty good about the medical staff assisting our local sports teams.

At least Yahoo!'s optimistic

Day-to-day? That's a little generous, no?

In all seriousness, though, it's great to see that Richard Zednik is going to be okay. What happened on the ice Sunday night is one of, if not the, scariest thing that can happen during a hockey game. It's easy to forget that players are basically wearing knives on their feet and one little slip up could be fatal. Puts everything in perspective.

And in a historical perspective, it appears that Zednik's injury was actually worse than the one Clint Malarchuk infamously sustained in 1989.

From The Buffalo News' website:

The Clint Malarchuk comparisons can stop. Richard Zednik's injury was much more life- threatening.

"Clint actually cut his external jugular vein, which is quite different from your common carotid artery," Dr. Leslie J. Bisson said. "Your common carotid artery, when that's lacerated, it can very quickly become a fatal injury."

The four doctors who treated Zednik used words today such as "profusely," "devastating," "hanging by a thread" and "lucky" to describe the sliced carotid artery injury suffered by Zednik on Sunday.

The physicians who treated the Florida Panthers hockey player met with the media this afternoon. They described a scene that likely would have been fatal if not for a sequence of fortunate events.

Zednik, struck in the throat by the skate of teammate Olli Jokinen, was fortunate the blade cut only the carotid artery, barely missing the internal jugular vein and a web of nerves in the neck.

Still, the blow could have been deadly if:

*Zednik hadn't skated immediately to the bench, a 100-foot journey that left a wide trail of blood. That allowed trainers and doctors to reach him quicker.

*Bisson, the Sabres team doctor, hadn't been positioned next to the bench. He was able to hop out of the stands and meet Zednik near his bench. Bisson immediately put pressure on the gushing artery, slowing the bleeding.

*The artery had been completely severed. It wasn't, allowing Drs. Sonya Noor and Richard Curl to quickly find the injury and reattach it cleanly. If the artery had torn fully, it would have retracted and moved out of place.

"We all were very lucky last night, not just Richard," Noor said in Buffalo General Hospital.

The Roost's thoughts and prayers continue to stay with Zednik and his family throughout the recovery process.

Easing Back into Things

There will be something sports-related later today, but for now let's just be happy that we didn't witness something truly tragic last night.

The picture I posted will be the most graphic image you will see from us in regard to last night's incident. There are worse pictures out there and anyone with a search engine can find them, but they won't be here.

There is a voyeuristic side of us all, a need to know what all the fuss is about. That is the reason the incident will be on YouTube and all over the news for the next few days. There are water coolers to fuel and opinions to formulate for the talking heads, and that visual evidence is necessary to keep the engine of the mainstream media chugging along.

Still, it is nice to see some people in the industry maintain a level of censorship regarding the issue. Kudos to MSG for not showing the full video of the incident itself, and for keeping the camera off the majority of the ice long enough for it to be cleaned up. That single shot of a trail of blood is enough to forever ingrain that incident in my memory.

Someone in the control booth realized that whatever they showed would be national news by night's end and replayed ad nasuem on ESPN regardless of Zednik's condition. It was good to see a group of people collectively show respect to what just happened and not sacrifice their integrity for the prospect of good video.

Also, as pictures from the AP and Don Heupel appear showing some pretty gruesome sights, I take a small bit of pride in the fact that the Getty images have been pretty tame. More specifically, I haven't seen anything from Buffalo News photojournalist Bill Wippert that makes my stomach turn, unlike Heupel's work. Having worked with Wippert before, it is nice to see a local journalist showing restraint with such a terrible event. Looking at the Getty website you can see there are much worse images taken by Wippert then what was selected by the major news sources. I'd hope those shots continue to be left alone.

When incidents like this occur it makes me wonder who is responsible for the judgment calls like showing video or images of it. My instincts point to gatekeepers like ESPN or your local news as the primary sources, but the question of individual people like Wippert and Heupel is something I don't have the answer to.

Perhaps it is out of their hands; they have signed contracts and are obligated to give up any shots taken. However, if they do have the choice of withholding images too explicit for public view, I would have to commend people like Wippert for walking the line of informing the public and respecting those involved and their families. No one wants to be haunted by the image of a relative seriously hurt, and so while the general public may want to see it all a level of personal interest must be shown.

It is more than possible that I have no place to comment on yesterday's event. I'm just a hockey fan with only my own morality to guide my thinking. Still, I'd like to think yesterday was handled pretty well by us hockey fans. We were on the edge of something truly awful last night and acted accordingly.

I’d like to say that’s always the case, but you know better than that.

Two Points in the Worst Way

In a few brief strides suddenly the game didn't matter as much.

There will be a lot of things said in the coming days about safety and equipment, but for now let's keep in mind that this was a freak accident that absolutely no one wants to see.

Let's save the discussion of visors and neck guards for tomorrow and keep Richard in our prayers tonight.