Marc Savard feeling better, still struggling

Joe McDonald of ESPNBoston.com has some quotes from Bruins forward Marc Savard today, as he struggles to recover from a brutal concussion thanks to a hit by Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke.

“There’s still minor headaches and stuff I’m still cautious about,” Savard said. “Until those go away, I’m not going to be able to come back. Right now, I’m cheering on the boys. I’m able to watch now and I’m feeling better, that’s for sure.”

He says that he’s now able to get out the house and trying to get back to some semblance of a normal life, but he still a far, far ways off from even attempting to get back on the ice. He won’t return this season, and right now it looks like Savard may have trouble returning in time for training camp for next season.

There’s still plenty of time from now until then, however, but the key is not to try and rush a return from such a bad injury.

This sort of scenario, where Savard sits at home and struggles just to face the sunlight in the morning while Matt Cooke plays for the Penguins in the playoffs, is exactly what makes hockey fans angry. That this was not an illegal hit at the time, technically, is a travesty and despite the NHL’s knee jerk attempts to fix the issue was something that could have been addressed years ago.

I don’t care if it’s been a part of hockey forever; targeting a player’s head with your shoulder when he’s not ready for the hit is incredibly dangerous and stupid. Hopefully the NHL sees that all head shots -- not just ‘blind side’ ones -- have no place in the game of hockey.