How vestibular issues changed an NHL defenseman’s career

During his NHL career, Bryce Salvador was never the flashiest player on the ice. He was never the type of player that would dazzle fans with individual skill, and most casual sports fans have likely never even heard of Bryce Salvador. One thing that Salvador did during his career was battle. On the ice, he was a traditional stay-at-home defenseman, which meant he would battle in the dirty areas of the ice to help his team gain possession of the puck. Salvador never had any significant injury problems throughout his career until a game in 2009. As Salvador himself described it in his retirement announcement on the Players’ Tribune, he was hit in the face by an errant puck. He details the immediate impact that this event had on him and his lack of a proper recovery from the injury. Although his ears were ringing and he could hardly hear his own teammates ask him if he was okay, he didn’t miss any games and came back into the lineup for the New Jersey Devils’ next game against the New York Rangers.

Bryce Salvador with the captain’s “C” on his sweater in a game against the Boston Bruins (The Players’ Tribune)

As time went on the symptoms of the inner-ear concussion caused by the slapshot only got worse. Salvador describes how he couldn’t keep his balance on one leg during offseason training, and how even the most insignificant of body checks would make him feel completely nauseous. As Salvador’s condition worsened, he eventually sought the care of a trained military doctor, who finally revealed to him that one of three parts of his vestibular system was “broken”. According to Salvador, the three main components of the vestibular system are the eyes, feet and the inner ear. If one of these “breaks” (for Salvador, this was the inner ear), the two remaining components can take over and make everything seem okay. One of the “insignificant” checks Salvador took in between his inner-ear concussion and the 2010 preseason “broke” his eyes, so he couldn’t play. Instead of playing defense for the Devils, Salvador devoted his entire 2010-11 season trying to get well again.

Diagram of the Vestibular System in the inner ear (slideshare.net)

Diagram of the Vestibular System in the inner ear (slideshare.net)

Dr. James Kelly, a trained military doctor who has treated American troops who suffered severe damage from IEDs, reassured Salvador that he would be fine, but it would take a lot of work in order to get back on the ice. Part of Salvador’s therapy included spinning in an office chair until he was extremely dizzy, but why would he purposely make himself dizzy? According to Salvador, it takes the average person ten seconds to stop feeling dizzy after spinning around. At the start of his program, it took him over a minute to fully recover. As he kept working, the recovery time from his dizziness eventually worked its way down to ten seconds.

After this significant breakthrough, Salvador called Lou Lamoriello, the Devils’ iconic general manager who was with the team from 1987 to 2015, and said that he was ready to play in the 2011-12 season. With Salvador and team captain Zach Parise, who missed all but 13 games of the 2010-11 season with a torn meniscus in his knee, returning from injury, the Devils made a run all the way to the 2012 Stanley Cup Final, and Salvador was a key contributor and steadying presence on defense. Although Salvador was never a goal-scoring threat, he did score a goal in the Devils’ 2-1 win in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Los Angeles Kings. Though the Devils ended up losing the series in six games, scoring in the Stanley Cup Final is a significant achievement and something Salvador should be very proud of. After the 2012 season Salvador was named captain of the Devils, and retired in September 2015 after 14 seasons in the NHL.

2 thoughts on “How vestibular issues changed an NHL defenseman’s career

  1. Jeffrey Sherman

    As a former hockey player, I found this post very interesting and somewhat frightening. I’m definitely fortunate to never receive an injury to the face while playing hockey, but I did manage to hurt my back. More specifically, I strained my lumbar and slipped a disc in my vertebra. An article here” says that disc injuries generally occur when one repeats the same position frequently, and the bent knee stance is very familiar for almost every hockey player. Avoiding this exercise is mostly done through adequate stretching, and I would definitely recommend doing so if you plan to go into the rink.

  2. Jackson Grey Hope

    This is a great comeback story. I usually watch hockey around playoff time and it is a very interesting and tough sport. Personally, I am a football fan and this story reminded me a little of the concussion crisis that the NFL has been facing ever since CTE was discovered. However, in the cases with people suffering CTE, their comeback was non-existent.

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