ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Minnesota Wild center Eric Staal has a concussion from his headfirst crash into the boards.
Fortunately the dangerous collision didn't cause further damage.
Staal looked well on Tuesday when he spoke to reporters, though general manager Chuck Fletcher said Staal would have been out for a while had the Wild stayed in the playoffs. Staal recalled the sequence in Game 5 of the first-round series against St. Louis, when he tripped near the Blues net at the end of a breakaway and barreled at full speed into the barrier.
He said he initially felt some numbness in his feet but was eventually able to get up and leave the ice with assistance before being taken to a nearby hospital for observation.