The report, according to Peter Chiarelli, “is, frankly, far from the truth.’’
But as noted in this space over the weekend, when it was first reported that Savard was headed home for R&R, it is often, if not always, impossible to draw definitive timelines of recovery from concussions and “issues related’’ to postconcussion syndrome.
Chiarelli, who released a statement early in the evening essentially to deny the report on espn.com (not directly mentioned in the statement), reiterated after the “State of the Bruins’’ lovefest that Savard will be back in town this week, that he remains in good spirits, and that the club has “never considered’’ the notion that he won’t play this season.
All that said, no one, including Savard himself and the doctors at MGH who reviewed his neuropsychological status, knows where it goes from here for the high-scoring 33-year-old center. PCS symptoms vary in nature and severity, often including dizziness, nausea, depression, mood swings, headaches, and irritability, just to name some of the more common and menacing bugaboos. Chiarelli, keeping to his standard practice, will not detail Savard’s specific symptoms.
And that espn.com report?
“It is contradictory and untrue,’’ said the GM. Had he not “felt fairly strong the other way’’ about the report, said Chiarelli, he would not have issued the statement, one that was made available to the media only minutes after the 7 p.m. start of the “State of the Bruins’’ meeting on Causeway Street.
OK, but when asked how doctors suggest Savard moves ahead once he returns to Boston, it became telling from Chiarelli’s comments that the veteran’s future is, well, vague.
Again, welcome to the nebulous, often troubling world of PCS.
“Getting him back, seeing him day to day,’’ said Chiarelli, when asked about Savard’s immediate future. “Really, it is observation, seeing him, and how he performs tasks, does things little by little. He is in a good frame of mind, generally speaking. The doctors gave us their report.’’
