swflyers25
5-24-06, 2:54 PM
Article about our wonderful trainer, Jim McCrossin: :mad:
No off-season for Flyers' trainer
By Ray Parrillo
Inquirer Staff Writer
It had been more than two weeks since the Flyers' season concluded with a lopsided playoff loss to Buffalo, but Friday morning the vast training room at the team's practice facility in Voorhees was bustling with activity.
Too battered to seek relief from their disappointment on golf courses, several Flyers were dutifully reporting to Jim McCrossin, their muscular, soft-spoken trainer and strength and conditioning coach.
McCrossin was moving from player to player, tending to their needs. He carefully positioned Sami Kapanen's right elbow, bent at a 90-degree angle, on a table, a delicate starting point for the winger's rehabilitation from the shoulder and biceps surgery he'd had a day earlier.
He consulted with Simon Gagne, recovering from recent surgery on torn hip cartilage, and received good news when told defenseman Kim Johnsson had finally been cleared to train after missing the last three months with post-concussion symptoms.
As usual, McCrossin's day began at 6 a.m., when he sent goalie Antero Niittymaki off to Nashville to visit a surgeon about a problem hip and a torn groin. He then put Brian Savage and Michal Handzus through rehab drills while waiting to hear what Turner Stevenson had to say about his visit to an orthopedic surgeon following a knee operation.
Keith Primeau, his nose bandaged from surgery the day before, and Donald Brashear, the team pugilist who gave up throwing punches late in the season because his shoulder couldn't handle the stress, were also on hand.
"They know I'm going to be here all day, so I tell them to come in whenever they can," McCrossin said. "I don't hold them to a strict schedule at this time of year because they need their rest as well as rehab."
This was McCrossin's eighth season as the Flyers' full-time caretaker, and it was unlike any other he'd seen, even going back to his days when he worked with the team under Pat Croce, the ubiquitous millionaire who started building his fortune by taping ankles.
"It was quite unique," McCrossin said.
McCrossin was alluding to a season in which the Flyers were never whole, one in which they finished first in the NHL in the least desired category - man-games lost because of injuries - with 388.
No sooner had the lights gone out on the Flyers' season than they learned their best player, Peter Forsberg, would likely miss the first three months of next season while he recovered from reconstructive surgery on both ankles.
"Peter's ankles were so bad, they were out like this," McCrossin said, assuming a pronounced bow-legged position. "He couldn't even walk with a normal gait. Now with the surgery, it's corrected. His foot is back in the natural position and it looks phenomenal. He's excited, and so am I. Peter was so frustrated this season because he couldn't push off when he skated. Imagine how good he'll be when he can really skate."
McCrossin said Forsberg went through more than 100 pairs of skates in an effort to find a pair that could support feet that basically weren't properly attached to his ankles. Forsberg's right ankle, which has been repaired, was worse than his left, which will be operated on in a few weeks.
The seasons of Primeau, who played only nine games, Johnsson and Chris Therien were abbreviated because of concussions, but the uncanny rash of groin injuries to players such as Forsberg, Gagne, goalie Robert Esche and Petr Nedved raised some questions about the Flyers' training methods.
McCrossin wondered as much himself.
"We're always looking for better ways," he said. "We'd be foolish if we were still doing things the same way as five, 10 years ago. There's different research and different studies that come out and say, 'This is the way you should do it.' I took a look at what I was doing."
After consulting with surgeons, McCrossin suspects that most of the groin problems were the result of other injuries, in particular damaged labrums in hip joints. A labrum is a ring of cartilage that surrounds the socket of the hip.
Since the end of the season, Gagne, Esche and Mike Rathje have had surgery to repair hip cartilage. McCrossin believes Forsberg's groin problems resulted from his bad ankles.
"It's the labrums that were causing the groin pain," he said. "If you have instability in your hip, it's going to cause groin pain, lower back pain or both. A lot of the groin problems were from labral tears. There are times when a player will get a pure groin strain. But I would say 90 percent of the time there's an underlying circumstance that causes it. The key is to find if there's a weakness and try to correct it."
Rathje, the big defenseman, played through significant pain for most of the season and was able to do so largely because of injections with a strong anti-inflammatory drug.
"I don't use painkillers," McCrossin said. "You want an athlete's body to tell him when he's injured or else he can do further damage. Mike Rathje played only because the doctors told him he couldn't make it any worse."
Much of the season, Handzus and Kapanen were limited because of torn shoulder labrums. Labral injuries are usually the result of wear and tear.
In McCrossin, Flyers general manager Bob Clarke believes he has the best in the business, and the feedback he gets from the players reinforces his belief.
"We've offered to hire some help for Jim, but he never wants any," Clarke said. "Someone in his job has to have a close relationship with the players. He's the guy who's conditioning them and rehabbing their injuries, so they have to have faith in him - and they do."
Clarke, captain of the Flyers' two Stanley Cup champion teams in the mid-1970s, said hockey injuries are on the increase. One reason, he said, is that players are bigger and faster and, therefore, deliver more punishing hits. He said stricter enforcement of obstruction rules led to more devastating hits and that lighter, sturdier protective equipment emboldens players to seek and destroy.
"There were way less injuries in those days," Clarke said. "But it's such a different game now. The hitting wasn't nearly as hard because the equipment wasn't nearly as good. You learned to hit with your hip or your butt or your shoulder because you were also protecting yourself. In today's game, the shoulder pads are like weapons. They're hard and light, and if you catch somebody in the face or head with them, you're going to hurt them. The game used to be north-south. Now players crisscross all over the ice."
McCrossin said the compacted schedule to accommodate the Winter Olympics helped facilitate injuries. On average, he said, players were given about a half-day less recovery time between games. McCrossin also suspects players were more susceptible to injuries because so many of them didn't play last season as a result of the lockout.
"The first half of the season, the league gave us information about groin strains, and they were up," McCrossin said. "About 60 percent of players with groin injuries didn't play last year. A lot of guys probably didn't train properly because we weren't allowed to work with them during the lockout."
An NHL spokesman said the league is in the process of gathering data about injuries, which will be evaluated. He said the league is working on building a new injury tracking system with the players' association, doctors and trainers.
As for the Flyers' injury woes this season, McCrossin said there was another factor that neither he nor anyone else could do much about.
"A lot of it," he said, "was simply bad luck."
Under the Knife
Flyers who have had surgery since the season ended:
Donald Brashear
- shoulder labrum
Robert Esche
- hip labrum
Peter Forsberg
- ankle
Simon Gagne
- hip labrum
Denis Gauthier
- shoulder labrum
Michal Handzus
- shoulder labrum and biceps tendon
Derian Hatcher
- right knee
Sami Kapanen
- right shoulder and biceps tendon
Keith Primeau
- nose
Branko Radivojevic
- shoulder labrum
Mike Rathje
- hip labrum
Brian Savage
- shoulder labrum
Turner Stevenson
- right knee
- Ray Parrillo
Contact staff writer Ray Parrillo at 215-854-2743 or rparrillo@phillynews.com.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/sports/14651240.htm
No off-season for Flyers' trainer
By Ray Parrillo
Inquirer Staff Writer
It had been more than two weeks since the Flyers' season concluded with a lopsided playoff loss to Buffalo, but Friday morning the vast training room at the team's practice facility in Voorhees was bustling with activity.
Too battered to seek relief from their disappointment on golf courses, several Flyers were dutifully reporting to Jim McCrossin, their muscular, soft-spoken trainer and strength and conditioning coach.
McCrossin was moving from player to player, tending to their needs. He carefully positioned Sami Kapanen's right elbow, bent at a 90-degree angle, on a table, a delicate starting point for the winger's rehabilitation from the shoulder and biceps surgery he'd had a day earlier.
He consulted with Simon Gagne, recovering from recent surgery on torn hip cartilage, and received good news when told defenseman Kim Johnsson had finally been cleared to train after missing the last three months with post-concussion symptoms.
As usual, McCrossin's day began at 6 a.m., when he sent goalie Antero Niittymaki off to Nashville to visit a surgeon about a problem hip and a torn groin. He then put Brian Savage and Michal Handzus through rehab drills while waiting to hear what Turner Stevenson had to say about his visit to an orthopedic surgeon following a knee operation.
Keith Primeau, his nose bandaged from surgery the day before, and Donald Brashear, the team pugilist who gave up throwing punches late in the season because his shoulder couldn't handle the stress, were also on hand.
"They know I'm going to be here all day, so I tell them to come in whenever they can," McCrossin said. "I don't hold them to a strict schedule at this time of year because they need their rest as well as rehab."
This was McCrossin's eighth season as the Flyers' full-time caretaker, and it was unlike any other he'd seen, even going back to his days when he worked with the team under Pat Croce, the ubiquitous millionaire who started building his fortune by taping ankles.
"It was quite unique," McCrossin said.
McCrossin was alluding to a season in which the Flyers were never whole, one in which they finished first in the NHL in the least desired category - man-games lost because of injuries - with 388.
No sooner had the lights gone out on the Flyers' season than they learned their best player, Peter Forsberg, would likely miss the first three months of next season while he recovered from reconstructive surgery on both ankles.
"Peter's ankles were so bad, they were out like this," McCrossin said, assuming a pronounced bow-legged position. "He couldn't even walk with a normal gait. Now with the surgery, it's corrected. His foot is back in the natural position and it looks phenomenal. He's excited, and so am I. Peter was so frustrated this season because he couldn't push off when he skated. Imagine how good he'll be when he can really skate."
McCrossin said Forsberg went through more than 100 pairs of skates in an effort to find a pair that could support feet that basically weren't properly attached to his ankles. Forsberg's right ankle, which has been repaired, was worse than his left, which will be operated on in a few weeks.
The seasons of Primeau, who played only nine games, Johnsson and Chris Therien were abbreviated because of concussions, but the uncanny rash of groin injuries to players such as Forsberg, Gagne, goalie Robert Esche and Petr Nedved raised some questions about the Flyers' training methods.
McCrossin wondered as much himself.
"We're always looking for better ways," he said. "We'd be foolish if we were still doing things the same way as five, 10 years ago. There's different research and different studies that come out and say, 'This is the way you should do it.' I took a look at what I was doing."
After consulting with surgeons, McCrossin suspects that most of the groin problems were the result of other injuries, in particular damaged labrums in hip joints. A labrum is a ring of cartilage that surrounds the socket of the hip.
Since the end of the season, Gagne, Esche and Mike Rathje have had surgery to repair hip cartilage. McCrossin believes Forsberg's groin problems resulted from his bad ankles.
"It's the labrums that were causing the groin pain," he said. "If you have instability in your hip, it's going to cause groin pain, lower back pain or both. A lot of the groin problems were from labral tears. There are times when a player will get a pure groin strain. But I would say 90 percent of the time there's an underlying circumstance that causes it. The key is to find if there's a weakness and try to correct it."
Rathje, the big defenseman, played through significant pain for most of the season and was able to do so largely because of injections with a strong anti-inflammatory drug.
"I don't use painkillers," McCrossin said. "You want an athlete's body to tell him when he's injured or else he can do further damage. Mike Rathje played only because the doctors told him he couldn't make it any worse."
Much of the season, Handzus and Kapanen were limited because of torn shoulder labrums. Labral injuries are usually the result of wear and tear.
In McCrossin, Flyers general manager Bob Clarke believes he has the best in the business, and the feedback he gets from the players reinforces his belief.
"We've offered to hire some help for Jim, but he never wants any," Clarke said. "Someone in his job has to have a close relationship with the players. He's the guy who's conditioning them and rehabbing their injuries, so they have to have faith in him - and they do."
Clarke, captain of the Flyers' two Stanley Cup champion teams in the mid-1970s, said hockey injuries are on the increase. One reason, he said, is that players are bigger and faster and, therefore, deliver more punishing hits. He said stricter enforcement of obstruction rules led to more devastating hits and that lighter, sturdier protective equipment emboldens players to seek and destroy.
"There were way less injuries in those days," Clarke said. "But it's such a different game now. The hitting wasn't nearly as hard because the equipment wasn't nearly as good. You learned to hit with your hip or your butt or your shoulder because you were also protecting yourself. In today's game, the shoulder pads are like weapons. They're hard and light, and if you catch somebody in the face or head with them, you're going to hurt them. The game used to be north-south. Now players crisscross all over the ice."
McCrossin said the compacted schedule to accommodate the Winter Olympics helped facilitate injuries. On average, he said, players were given about a half-day less recovery time between games. McCrossin also suspects players were more susceptible to injuries because so many of them didn't play last season as a result of the lockout.
"The first half of the season, the league gave us information about groin strains, and they were up," McCrossin said. "About 60 percent of players with groin injuries didn't play last year. A lot of guys probably didn't train properly because we weren't allowed to work with them during the lockout."
An NHL spokesman said the league is in the process of gathering data about injuries, which will be evaluated. He said the league is working on building a new injury tracking system with the players' association, doctors and trainers.
As for the Flyers' injury woes this season, McCrossin said there was another factor that neither he nor anyone else could do much about.
"A lot of it," he said, "was simply bad luck."
Under the Knife
Flyers who have had surgery since the season ended:
Donald Brashear
- shoulder labrum
Robert Esche
- hip labrum
Peter Forsberg
- ankle
Simon Gagne
- hip labrum
Denis Gauthier
- shoulder labrum
Michal Handzus
- shoulder labrum and biceps tendon
Derian Hatcher
- right knee
Sami Kapanen
- right shoulder and biceps tendon
Keith Primeau
- nose
Branko Radivojevic
- shoulder labrum
Mike Rathje
- hip labrum
Brian Savage
- shoulder labrum
Turner Stevenson
- right knee
- Ray Parrillo
Contact staff writer Ray Parrillo at 215-854-2743 or rparrillo@phillynews.com.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/sports/14651240.htm