Pretty late on this one, but I really dislike the NHL's recently adopted policy of non-disclosure on injuries.  I can't really see the point of doing this.  I'm just a fan, but really, what is the point of keeping an injury from being public knowledge?  So your opponent won't know if someone is playing that night or not?  That might make sense if there were more impact players. 

In the NFL, you can have week-long debates as to whether or not running back A or wide receiver B are going to be playing, which would help keep the interest going during the week without any games between Monday and Sunday.  But how does this benefit the NHL?

I suppose it might be a situation where it won't cause a player to hurry back from a bad case of an injury, leading them to reinjure it.  But wouldn't a committed player want to do that anyway?  And they can't play before cleared by the team doctor(s) in most cases anyway.

So, I took to the web to find answers.

Unfortunately, aside from tons of advertisements for lawyers trying to sell me non disclosure forms, I couldn't easily find any information as to why this policy has been adopted. 

But wait!  Leave it to the CBC to clarify for me!  Thanks to former NHL goaltender Kelly Hrudey, now a broadcaster and blogger with CBC, I have been given the simple answer as to why teams don't disclose injuries.  And I feel kinda stupid for not realizing it.

I'll start by saying that it appears that it's not the NHL, but the teams that use this policy.  I apologize for accusing your league, Mr. Bettman.  Secondly, non disclosure is for the simple reason that if opponents find out about it, you're dead meat.  As suggested in the CBC article I linked to, if a team knows you're injured, they're more likely to target that spot. 

In Kelly Hrudey's case, he wouldn't have been able to stop a beach ball over his bad shoulder (an idea I'm familiar with) taking significant time off to heal it.  However, by the team not revealing it, he managed to keep playing decently.

So I guess I have to concede defeat on this one.  I am clearly little more than a fan on this one.  However, now I'm that much more informed about the why and how of the NHL, and I guess in the end, that's the purpose of my writing.  Hope to see you back here Thursday for another installment!