When Can Lian Bichsel Return: I Read the NHL Concussion Protocol So You Don't Have To

Let's break down where the "five or six day" minimum timeline comes from

Yesterday, Sean Shapiro (and later Pete DeBoer) confirmed that Lian Bichsel is in concussion protocol after being hit in the head by Casey Cizikas.

You’ve seen the hit. We’ve talked about the hit. You can read about it more, if you’d like, right here:

But if you already did that, then you know that yesterday, Shapiro mentioned that per Jim Nill, Bichsel would be out for a minimum of 5-6 days.

Why that length of time, exactly? Well, good question, me. So today, I wanted to dig into where that timeline comes from, and who determines it, and how they do it.

If you’re in for some fun reading, you can dig into this portion of the NHL medical handbook yourself by downloading it from the NHLPA website. It’s granular, as you would hope, but I think it’s pretty interesting if you have some time to kill, as I clearly did.

From what I’ve gathered, the NHL’s concussion protocol gets updated every year or two, much like your corporation’s HR handbook. Here’s an older 2022-23 version, for example. Laws change, policies get updated, and lawyers are constantly ensuring they can point to a document proving that they abide by all proper practices and guidelines and inform their employees accordingly in order to avoid being sued down the line, or at least not to lose said lawsuit.

Anyway, we’re talking about Bichsel here. You want to know when he’s going to return, and who decides how quickly that happens. And for Bichsel’s sake, we should be very glad that this question is as complex as it is consistent.

What exactly is a concussion?

I’ll quote from a definition provided to medical professionals here, because I believe you are all smart enough to parse this:

A concussion is a traumatic brain injury induced by biomechanical forces. It is caused by a direct blow to the head, face, neck, or by a blow elsewhere on the body with an impulsive force transmitted to the head. Concussions typically result in the rapid onset of transient impairment of neurological function that resolves spontaneously. Signs and symptoms of a concussion can appear immediately or evolve over a number of minutes to hours. The acute signs and symptoms largely reflect a functional disturbance rather than a structural injury. Often, there is no loss of consciousness.

I want to emphasize that concussion can absolutely happen without a direct hit to the head. For a recent example, you probably remember when Joe Pavelski entered concussion protocol after the Matt Dumba hit in Game 1 of the playoffs a couple years ago, which wasn’t as direct a hit to the head as it was a heavy hit to the shoulder/neck area.

Every case is different, but for Pavelski, he was out for about two weeks. The hit came on April 17. The Stars’ final game of the Minnesota series was April 28, and Pavelski returned for Game 1 against Seattle on May 2nd, where he looked pretty healthy.

(Side note: I was at both of those games, and they were loud. That fourth goal from Pavelski was one of the loudest goal celebrations I’ve heard this decade. No matter how good your game presentation is, those moments remind you that nothing really comes close to hearing tens of thousands of people roaring around you, whether from bitter anger or delirious joy. Nothing.)

Okay, so Pavelski needed two weeks to complete the concussion protocol process, but we’ve been told 5-6 days for Bichsel, at a minimum. Where is that difference coming from? Let’s dig in.

A TL;DR Answer

If you just clicked on this because you want the answer without the background, then I would chastise you for asking for the equivalent of the wandering statues of Daedalus, which is to say true opinions without actual knowledge. But I also know this is the internet, so, I got you buddy. Here’s the short version, before a much longer overview further down: