Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford is “apparently” suffering from post-concussion syndrome, team adviser Scotty Bowman said Wednesday during an interview on Sportsnet 590 The FAN.
“It’s not what they’re reporting. He got hurt at the beginning of the season … Forsberg played maybe four or five games, he [Crawford] must’ve got, I think it was a concussion,” Bowman said. “And now apparently what he really has is post-concussion syndrome.”
It appears Bowman, the father of GM Stan Bowman, was referring to Crawford’s first stint on IR in early December. The Blackhawks did not disclose that injury at the time, but if he suffered a concussion around that time, then it would make sense if that’s the cause of his current absence.
However, these comments do not appear to be a proper diagnosis from the team or anything based on inside information from Bowman. He later spoke with the Chicago Sun-Times’ Mark Lazerus and said he was merely “guessing” as to what’s wrong with the goaltender.
I just spoke with Scotty Bowman and he said he was “guessing,” not sharing inside info. “I think he got a concussion,” he said. “I have no confirmation that it is.”
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) January 18, 2018
The older Bowman’s comments add another layer to what’s been an unclear situation surrounding the starting goalie. An earlier report from Lazerus citing multiple sources said that Crawford has been dealing with “vertigo-like symptoms” since his last appearance on Dec. 23.
The team had been silent on the subject beyond vague updates since placing him on injured reserve on Dec. 27. Lazerus’ report was the first indication of why he might be out beyond the vague “upper-body injury” distinction that was initially given.
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Though vertigo can occur as a result of post-concussion syndrome, the distinction would be important to understanding why Crawford is out of the lineup. In this case, it seems like both Lazerus’ sources and Bowman could be accurate, in that Crawford might be dealing with vertigo-like dizziness as part of post-concussion symptoms.
However, it doesn’t seem like this is a hard confirmation in any direction of what’s wrong with Crawford, beyond the fact that his injury is related to his head.