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Julien says he’s done giving Horton updates: “We don’t know what concussions are all about”

Claude Julien

Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien answers a question at a news conference in Boston Sunday, June 5, 2011. The Bruins and Vancouver Canucks play Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

AP

Want a health update on Nathan Horton? If yes, you’ll have to ask someone other than Claude Julien.

The 51-year-old Bruins head coach told reporters he’s “done talking about” Horton, who has been out since Jan. 23 with a concussion.

“I can’t give you an update every day on this guy because it could be long, it could be short,” Julien said. “When you see him on the ice with us, it’s going to be a really good sign, so we’ll leave it at that.”

Horton’s missed the last five games after suffering a concussion against Philadelphia and only recently resumed skating. Because of his high profile -- Horton scored the goal that sent Boston to the Stanley Cup finals, his wife is a former Playboy model and the great-niece of Jacques Plante -- and highly-publicized concussion suffered at the hands of Aaron Rome, there has been plenty of speculation about his health and impending return.

Not helping matters (well, Julien’s matters anyway) is Boston’s prior history with players taking extended leaves for concussion rehab -- most notably, Patrice Bergeron and Marc Savard.

So it’s understandable why local scribes are asking questions about Horton’s health.

Julien, though, is done replying.

“I don’t have the answer, so I’m not going to give you an answer,” he said. “We don’t know what concussions are all about. There are forward steps, there are backwards steps. I can’t just come out here every day and give you guys an update, because it doesn’t make sense.”

The problem here is that staying silent on an issue won’t make it go away. Not saying anything about Horton leads to speculation about Horton -- something CSNNE.com’s Joe Haggerty brought up. He writes that “nobody can tell” if Boston’s silence means Horton had a setback while skating, or if he’s ready to take the next step and resume practicing.