NHL commissioner: Concussions have increased

RALEIGH, N.C. - In his all-star address to the media, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said concussions have increased this season, but he attributed it to "accidental or inadvertent" contact.

"Most did not involve any contact whatsoever with the victim's head by an opponent," Bettman said before the SuperSkills competition at the packed RBC Center on Saturday night. "I'm not saying no concussions came from hits to the head, but it appears that the increase came from somewhere else."

Flyers winger Ian Laperriere suffered a concussion and brain damage when struck with a puck while blocking a shot last season, and his career appears to be over.

Bettman said some concussions were sustained when players "stumbled into the boards or [into] other players without any contact at all. We've seen players suffer concussions when struck by pucks to the head. We've seen players concussed when they've collided with teammates, and when they were hit legally and without head contact, after which their heads struck either the ice or the boards or the glass."

The commissioner would not reveal how many concussions players had suffered this season.

Bettman said concussions for blindside hits were down since a new rule was implemented last March.

The game's top player, Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, is absent from the All-Star Game because of a concussion.

The 2012 Winter Classic in Philly?

Maybe. Maybe not. Bettman said the location of the Jan. 1 event hasn't been decided.

"We do not have finalized plans yet," he said. "I haven't had really in-depth conversations on either the Winter Classic or the Heritage Classic, and we're still in the formulation stage."

For the first time, the SuperSkills competition included a fastest-skater segment between goalies. Carolina's Cam Ward beat Boston's Tim Thomas by about two seconds - and not because he was 10 years younger, though that probably didn't hurt.

Thomas, 36, fell to the ice as he made a turn around the back of the net, costing him a chance at the win. The goalies raced while wearing their pads and masks and carrying their sticks.

Ward on fans swarming around Carolina teammate Jeff Skinner, the baby-faced 18-year-old forward who will be the youngest player to ever play in an All-Star Game: "It's like he's Justin Bieber."

In one of the highlights of the SuperSkills competition, Boston defenseman Zdeno Chara broke his own NHL record by delivering a slap shot clocked at 105.9 m.p.h. Nashville defenseman Shea Weber had a shot clocked at 104.8. . . . Team Staal, which includes Claude Giroux, defeated Team Lidstrom, which includes Danny Briere, 33-22, in the skills competition, one that included six categories. . . . On behalf of the Flyers, Laperriere will receive the team-of-the-year award at the 107th annual Philadelphia Sports Writers Association's banquet at the Crowne Plaza in Cherry Hill on Monday night. For ticket information, go to pswa.org. . . . Montreal's animated P.K. Subban, taking part in the skills competition as one of the top rookies, said Flyers fans' boos motivate him: "I'm the type of player where I can feed off that stuff," he said. "It just fuels the fire." . . . Next year's All-Star Game will be in Ottawa.