From the New York Post's Larry Brooks:

What did the Flames know and when did they know it?

That will become the critical issue in the aftermath of the Dennis Wideman incident that could become the NHL’s Concussiongate once all appeals are exhausted and the final verdict is handed down on the Calgary defenseman, currently serving a 20-game suspension under Rule 40.2 for having violently crosschecked (my words) linesman Don Henderson on Jan. 27.

The rule that stipulates “intent to injure” was applied even though the league acknowledged Wideman had suffered a brain injury as the result of taking a hard check into the glass/dasher seconds before running into — or running — Henderson.

The later diagnosed concussion will figure prominently in the NHLPA’s appeal to league commissioner Gary Bettman. While it is unfathomable that the commissioner will reduce the sentence and incur the wrath of the officials working the ice — Yellow Sunday, anyone? — an all but inevitable ensuing appeal to an independent arbitrator could well yield a different result.

Because the sub-question to the one posed above is, can a player in the immediate aftermath of suffering a brain injury form the intent to do anything, much less injure an official? Believe me, that’s posed as a question; I am not playing the role of a physician in this space.

Continued