Shero ‘ill’ over Crosby injury
2011.
And, most importantly to Shero, the same Sidney Crosby who helped his then-teenage son Chris cope when both players were attempting to battle through head injuries in 2011.
Now, six years and a new team later, here was Ray Shero, the glee of having won the 2017 NHL draft lottery having been momentarily been siphoned by shock as he saw a crumpled Crosby needing help.
“When I saw the replay, honestly, I felt ill … I really felt ill,” Shero said. “I haven’t felt that way in a long time.”
Ray Shero pauses. Normally one of the most articulate GMs in the sport, he is struggling to find the words. That’s how emotional he is with this entire Crosby situation.
Sidney Crosby played hard for Shero. He was a stand-up captain for Shero. He mentored Shero’s son through a time when neither player knew what the future held for them, both in hockey and in life. And now, to see this. Again … “To be honest, if he was hurt, was hoping maybe a leg or something,” Shero says. “You just hope it wasn’t another, well …
“You know, it brought me back to the outdoor game and having gone through all that with him. I mean, about that time, my son suffered a concussion right after that and was out of hockey for a long time.”
Ray Shero, The Hockey Executive, will always be grateful to Sidney Crosby for helping bring the ’09 NHL crown to Pittsburgh.
Ray Shero, The Dad, will forever be even more thankful to Crosby for being there for Chris.
On New Year’s Day of 2011, Crosby was turning to pursue a puck when the Washington Capitals’ David Steckel made direct contact with his head. While he was able to skate off under his own power, a subsequent blow from the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Victor Hedman four days later left Crosby unable to play another NHL game until November.
Two weeks after the SteckelHedman incidents, Chris Shero, then just 16, suffered his own concussion while playing for the Triple A Pittsburgh Hornets.
“He was out of school for two months,” Ray Shero recounted. “He didn’t play hockey until the next year. Having gone through that as a parent, well …”
All the while, Crosby was seeking all the advice he could get to educate himself on concussions and the different treatments of them. It was at this time that Ray Shero first got to know Michael (Micky) Collins, who heads the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s concussion testing unit.
And as both Crosby and Chris Shero looked to Collins and other brain specialists to find answers, Ray Shero once again discovered just what a stand-up guy his captain was off the ice as well as on.
“Sid was fantastic,” Ray Shero said. “He knew Chris was going through the same thing as him. The Penguins would be playing February, March, and he’d reach out to Chris and say come on down — there’s a practice area where they’d shoot and they’d practise shooting. And they’d be talking — how are you feeling, what’s going on, things like that.”
In separate interviews with Pittsburgh-area media outlets early in 2012, both Crosby and Chris Shero discussed how they leaned on each other during their respective recoveries.
“We talked back and forth on how everything was when I had my concussion and when he had his,” Chris Shero told KDKA-TV. “We talked about how things were. We were able to relate to each other so much easier with that.”
Said a reflective Crosby at the time: “It’s nice when someone can relate no matter what age. Even for him to hear what I was going through was good for him. To see someone who can’t go to school and can’t be with his friends, I think it was good for me to get a different viewpoint on it.”
For years, Eric Lindros had preached for open-mindedness when it came to seeking concussion treatments. In Ray Shero’s mind, Crosby’s injury against the Capitals six years ago augmented that message.
“Jan. 1, 2011 with Sid changed so much. Not only for the league but for me and my son,” he said. “Whether a guy gets a concussion in Pittsburgh, Wilkes-Barre, wherever, it doesn’t matter to me — Sidney Crosby, Chris (Shero), it’s just a hard thing to go through with all the unknowns. Having gone through that with my son the same time as Sid, it changed a lot of different things. The Penguins, the protocol with the league, the improvements we’ve made on that front … just as a parent.
“When you see something like that happen, those are the people I think about. His parents. His sister. And what they’re going through.
“When I saw Sid lying there, I just felt, well, ill. Oh my God.”
He wasn’t alone.