Not cool Lauri, not cool at all. (Photo: Bridget Samuels/flickr)

The good thing about your teams’ season ending? Injuries are no longer a secret. Most times when an injury is revealed fans respond something along the lines of “well that explains things”. Most times these injuries don’t come as a surprise. Claude Giroux had a wrist injury? Had no idea since he went from scoring every goal in round 1 to none in round 2. Other times, they catch you completely off guard.

Which brings me to Phoenix forward Lauri Korpikoski. Nicknamed “The Korepdo”, Korpikoski is known for the energy and speed he brings to the game. When that disappeared as the postseason went on, everyone assumed he was hurt. He was. According to Craig Morgan of Fox Sports Arizona, who was at the Coyotes break-up day, Korpikoski had knee, elbow and concussion injuries. Rumor is this all happened in the Chicago series, i.e. Round 1, and while he missed some games, he did play through the injuries. What does this mean? According to Five for Howling, he played with a concussion.

I can’t point fingers because I have no idea if the Coyotes knew before physicals on their break-up day that he had a concussion but with everything going on with concussions, with everything we now know, someone needs to be held accountable that he stepped on the ice still having symptoms. There is no excuse. Yes it’s the playoffs, yes your team needs you but guess what? You won’t be much help to them next year when the symptoms are still there and you can’t get on the ice. (Ask Marc Staal.)

I give the Coyotes credit for being honest about his injuries but if I’m a Coyotes fan, I want answers as to why he played. Injuries happen and if they lead to the team being knocked out, there’s nothing you can do about it. But to put a 25-year olds’ health in jeopardy over a game is absurd. If any organization should understand the repercussions of a concussion, it is the Coyotes. They do after all still pay Kurt Sauer who hasn’t stepped on the ice since the first game of the 2009-2010 season.

These things are serious people. You want to play with a broken bone? Fine, I can’t stop you. The bone will just take longer to heal. But your brain doesn’t care that you want to play. It will not heal if you keep pushing it. And the fact that we need to keep saying this proves these guys just don’t get it. Do we need to see a couple more players die from depression due to concussion symptoms? I just don’t understand how this keeps coming up.

Look, I don’t know how severe the concussion is or what symptoms he is experiencing so I have no idea if this will have any affect on him the future. I won’t, however, be surprised if he’s not on the opening day roster and to me, that will hurt his team more than if he sat out an extra game or two in the playoffs.