HockeyMitchell knows Crosby's journey

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Willie Mitchell was back in the NHL with Los Angeles last season after several months dealing with post-concussion symptoms. (Gus Ruelas/Associated Press)

Last Wednesday, we listened to Sidney Crosby reveal that he is 90 per cent recovered and extremely confident that he will resume his career at some point this season. The Pittsburgh Penguins captain, who skated with his teammates for 90 minutes on Monday, was short on details as to what he has endured in the past nine months. But we know from other players who have suffered concussions, dealing with a sports head injury is no picnic. Near the end of last season, Los Angeles Kings defenceman Willie Mitchell took the time to tell us his story.

In late March, Mitchell played in his 49th of 57 games last season. Not exactly a milestone total, but to the thoughtful Kings defenceman, who celebrated the occasion with a goal in his club's shootout win over the San Jose Sharks, the match was noteworthy.

Why was this game significant? Because 21 months ago, Mitchell's year with the Vancouver Canucks was cut short at 48 outings after he was slammed into the end boards from behind by Penguins star Evgeni Malkin on Jan. 16, 2010.

Mitchell suffered a concussion that ended his 2009-10 season and put his career in jeopardy. He returned to form last year and was back among the NHL's most dependable shutdown defencemen. But the road to recovery was no easy journey.

"It was a journey and I wouldn't wish it on anybody," said the 33-year-old from Port McNeill, B.C. "2010 was probably the toughest year of my life, but it was probably the best year of my life as far as maturing and growing as a person. The things you learn when you go through something like that.

"The biggest lesson was to worry about things you can control and not the other stuff. It's worked really well in terms of my relationships with my family, my wife, my friends, my teammates, my coaches. I don't worry about the stress caused by things I can't control. I don't worry if my defence partner didn't make that hold-up that I would have liked him to make. That is out of your control.

"It's made me a better person, a better player."

Away from it all

After the Malkin hit, Mitchell wanted to be left alone in the dark because light made it unbearable and every little noise got to him. The severe symptoms eventually subsided, but then Mitchell faced the external pressure of when he would return.

Everywhere he turned in Vancouver, he would run into a fan, a friend or teammate, and the questions would start. When are you coming back, Willie? How's your head, Willie? Are you feeling better, Willie? All those queries did was put pressure on Mitchell that he didn't need.

"Stress can give you a headache under normal circumstances," he said. "When you have a brain injury it's worse. This is why concussions can be misdiagnosed as depression. The brain is like a computer - the more you use it the more stress it feels. When it's injured like that, you need to put your brain in sleep mode."

So Mitchell decided to get away. He went to his cabin in the woods. Walks in the wilderness became part of his recovery. He didn't even bother watching his Canucks on television or in person in the playoffs so he could avoid the stress of cheering for his teammates.

After Vancouver was eliminated in the second round by the Chicago Blackhawks, the fog began to clear in Mitchell's head.

"I got to a point when I finally said to myself, it will get better when it gets better," Mitchell said. "I needed to get through these things on my own.

"But as soon as we got knocked out, those external pressures were gone from your team, from yourself, because you wanted to be in the playoffs. Now I didn't have that urgency to get back until training camp next year."

'Emotional injuries'

In June 2010, Mitchell began some light workouts. He became an unrestricted free agent on July 1, but when teams called to see how he felt or about a contract, he took the high road. He told them to wait until he stepped up his workouts. He told them to wait and see how he would feel later in the summer.

His personal trainer, Lance Barrett, put together a three-week boot camp in July, and Mitchell got through it. Now he needed a place to play. The Canucks were interested. So were the Washington Capitals and San Jose Sharks. But the Kings came up with the best offer, a two-year $7-million US pact. He was going to Hollywood.

As he and his wife, Megan, arrived in California, Mitchell was nervous. He went through the first few days of training camp without incident, but when he was about to suit up for his first pre-season game he was uneasy about how his head would react to that first major jolt.

Well, he passed that first test and the season opener back in Vancouver went well, too, with a 2-1 victory for the Kings in a shootout. But Mitchell still hadn't absorbed a shot to the head. That came later, when his current teammate Dustin Penner was still with the Edmonton Oilers and hit Mitchell with an elbow to the nose.

After a broken wrist forced him to miss 12 games and a knee injury cost him 11 more, there was a Mar. 3 game against the Phoenix Coyotes. A Kyle Turris shot hit Mitchell in the face and cut him for 53 stitches.

"Most people are worried about the stitches, I cared about my head," he said. "The wrist injury, the [knee] sprain, those are superficial injuries. They're physical injuries. You know when you're supposed to come back from those types of injuries. Concussions are emotional injuries and there are no time tables."

That's why, in hindsight, Mitchell knows he made the right steps in taking his time.
"It was a situation that worked best for myself, my health," he said. "I chose to do it that way and now that I look back on it I've gotten hit hard a couple of times this year and, to me, I made the right decision on how I went about things."

Calling out Campbell

Did Mitchell make the right decision at the end of last season when he criticized then NHL chief disciplinarian Colin Campbell for not levying any supplementary discipline on Malkin?
Mitchell said at the time, "I'm disappointed in the league, disappointed in Colin Campbell ... that he didn't rule down anything on the play. That's his job.

"As we've seen, he's been very inconsistent in how he has handled himself in those situations. I think a lot of times he hands down suspensions and fines on results [injuries], and I think that's the wrong thing to do. You rob a bank and there's $50 million in there or rob a bank and there's $5 in there, you're going to jail for the same amount of time. [Campbell] saw me get up off the ice and didn't make any ruling on it."

Mitchell explained his condemnation of Campbell 10 months later.

"People misread that," he said. "I wasn't taking a shot at Colie. I was just saying that there is a little bit of a conflict of interest there. He has been around for a long time and knows a lot of people around the league. It's not an easy job. I wouldn't want to do it either.

"It would be like be having to stand up in our dressing room and having to make decisions to sit guys down for not playing well. Again, it's not an easy job."

'Time to think'

Mitchell has watched with interest the concussion storylines since his head injury, particularly the absence of Crosby.

Mitchell sees a shift in attitudes towards concussion recovery, and that players want to change and want to see stiffer penalties from Campbell's office. He believes the players want a safer working environment and agreed with sentiments expressed by Crosby and Bobby Clarke.

"You're never going to eliminate it from the game," Mitchell said. "I think you can see a change happening and that's great."

Clarke remarked that although there was nasty stick work and dirty tactics when he played, body checks were made with the intent of separating an opponent from the puck. Now hits are made to knock foes out of the game. Mitchell agreed with Clarke and would like to see players get away from the intent-to-injure hits.

Mitchell was involved in an incident early last season when he knocked woozy Chicago Blackhawks star Jonathan Toews. Mitchell had just exited the penalty box before he caught Toews with a shoulder-to-shoulder hit, and the Blackhawks centre missed the next six games.

"If I made a move for the puck and it jumps over me, it's a 2-on-1 going the other way," Mitchell said. "He was just coming through the neutral zone with so much speed and that force, I think, caused the concussion."

Mitchell is not known for his bone-crunching hits. He plays a strong positional game. He's still one of the game's top penalty killers. He doesn't buy the argument that the game has become too quick and therefore players don't have time to think. He also applauded the league's recent directive to increase suspensions.

"I think they could go even higher," said Mitchell, who has partnered Drew Doughty this season with the Kings.

"I read something that Sid [Crosby] said that, yes, it's a fast game, but if you have time to make a hit, you have time to think how you're going to hit him - with a shoulder, an elbow or where you're going to hit him.

"It's a bit of a scapegoat when people say I didn't have time to think. We all have time to think."

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