Clarity of Injury Reports: Questionable

If you thought an NFL injury report was difficult to draw information from, wait until you look at the NHL’s. Back in 2008, the late Jim Kelley wrote this piece for SI about a rule put in place in June of that year that allows NHL teams to basically reveal nothing in their injury reports. Upper body. Lower body. Day-to-day. That’s about all you’re getting from a coach or general manager if you ask about a player’s current status. If Clint Malarchuk’s horrific skate slash incident happened today and you looked at an injury report, you’d likely see “Malarchuk: Upper body (out),” on a report. Kelley thought it hurt the game back in 2008. I don’t think anything has changed in the last 36 months. Before you go harping on this being a homer thing, yes, Marian Hossa’s recent injury was the catalyst for me writing this. However, I hardly think I’m alone in this matter. Every NHL team does it and every NHL fan seems to be frustrated to similar degrees. Don’t paying customers have the right to k