Less than a full week after taking a hard hit into the boards from Frazer McLaren of the Toronto Maple Leafs and going through the concussion protocol, Colin Fraser was back skating with his L.A. Kings’ teammates on Monday.
After that game last Wednesday, Kings’ head coach Darryl Sutter’s update on Fraser was that he had gotten his “bell rung,” which was an interesting assessment given the seriousness and long-lasting affects of concussions not just in hockey, but professional and amateur sports.
Fraser missed two games as a result of his injury, and had to go through some extensive testing before he was able to return to the ice, as per an article in the L.A. Times.
“They give you 15 words or whatever and then you repeat back as many as you remember, like three times,” Fraser told the L.A. Times.
“Shapes, memory and you’ve got to draw them. That was the written stuff. Then there’s a computer test, which is the same concepts but now it’s on the computer. ... They do it (as a base line) and every couple of years you’ve got to update it and they compare the results to see how you’re doing.
“I’ve never had a concussion ... some guys are unlucky and some guys are lucky. There’s no rhyme or reason to it.”