New York Islanders NHL Alumni Knows What Ails Ladd

The New York Islanders don’t reveal much information on player injuries. What little we do get is vague. For instance, GM Garth Snow casually dropped that Andrew Ladd was hurting for months, and that was the reason for his scratch. No mention of the specific ailment in his statement. No follow-up from the press.

I was watching the Islanders -Kings game this past Saturday night. Not so unusual for a New York Islanders blogger. Since I live in Los Angeles I was watching the King’s feed. And something amazing happened a few minutes into the game.

Jim Fox and Chris Cuthbert were doing the game. Cuthbert, filling in for Bob Miller, is fantastic. One of the best in my book. Though I admit to being partial to hearing a Canadian accent calling a game.

Anyway, early in the first Fox is discussing the New York Islanders scratches for the night and says the most amazing thing. “Andrew Ladd is out with a lower back injury. He first hurt his back during training camp and it hasn’t been right all year”

Uhh…Come Again?

What? Did you know that? Garth Snow finally mentioned a nagging injury last week but didn’t specify it at all.

Why didn’t the Islander’s own color guy, Butch Goring, ever gives this piece of info? He is not an employee of the Islanders. He shouldn’t fear the wrath of Garth… much.

Where was Arthur Staple on this? I think he does a great job, but if the info is out there for Jim Fox, how can Arthur not stumble upon it? When Staple gets unfairly dumped on for not being more critical he likes to answer that he is a reporter and not a columnist.

Well, if he is a reporter, than he needs to report.

I am sympathetic to the idea that a person’s medical records are private, and should not be divulged without permission. But there is an implicit sacrifice of privacy when you become a professional athlete. Your physical condition, as it might affect performance, is fair game.

I don’t want to know who has a hangnail, or premature hair loss (and that’s just the H’s).

What I want, and expect, is that the people who are empowered with the sacred (yeah, alright, that’s hyperbole) duty to ask the question and chase the answers. Staple and Cygalis aren’t expected to be Woodward and Bernstein.

I don’t expect them to meet a source in a dark underground parking garage. They don’t need three sources before they go to print. But did anyone even ask the question about Ladd’s injury?

Did they put any effort into finding an answer?

Next: Greiss is NHL Second Star Of The Week.

Or have years of a Kim Jung Snow style regime beaten them into intellectual submission on the injury disclosure issue?

But aye, here’s the rub. If this medical information is so closely held, how the hell did Fox get it?

I sent him an email to ask the question.  No response yet.