WILMINGTON, Mass. — Daniel Paille is fortunate. The concussion he suffered last Thursday was only a mild one.
Paille is also grateful that the Bruins medical staff made sure he didn't have a chance to make it any worse.
Paille was hurt on a hit from Florida forward Krys Barch early in the first period. Despite being stunned after the hit and having trouble getting off the ice, Paille felt OK soon thereafter and likely would have returned to the game if the decision was left in his hands. But thanks to the heightened sensitivity toward head injuries and increased knowledge about the effects of concussions in the NHL, the Bruins medical staff made certain that didn't happen.
"You've seen it before where guys have come back and finish [the game] and they're done, [St. Louis forward David] Perron missed a year," Paille said. "I think it was a smart move on [the medical staff's] part, and I guess that's why they're there, for them to make the judgment call because any one of us [players] would want to go out there regardless. So they have a better sense of judgment for us."
The Bruins proceeded with proper precaution for Paille, and now he hopes that will pay off with a quick return to the lineup. He practiced for the first time since the injury on Monday, although it was a non-contact session and Paille was still waiting to take his neuro-psych exam later on Monday. He must pass that before being cleared to play again.
"The last few days I've felt pretty good, where I didn't feel any symptoms," said Paille, who hopes to be cleared to play Tuesday against Los Angeles.
"I hope so," Paille said after practice. "Who knows? It's still quite early. I came in [Monday] and told them how I felt and they asked me to go out there and skate. So I'm definitely hoping it's a possibility, but who knows?"
Paille did not work out at all over the weekend, remaining at home while the team traveled to Columbus for a 5-3 win over the Blue Jackets on Saturday.
"While they were away I just stayed home and stayed relaxed until the guys came back," Paille said. "I was just trying to see how I felt and moved on from there.
"I didn't feel any symptoms throughout the whole weekend," Paille added. "I think that's definitely a positive. I think it was just more of a precaution to rest. With head injuries these days you want to be careful."
Paille has not had much in the way of concussion symptoms since shortly after the hit.
"Within the first 20 minutes [of the hit] I was pretty foggy and felt dazed," Paille said. "But other than that I felt pretty strong. There were other times when I felt a little tired, but I think that's from my cold. I've been battling that for two weeks, so hopefully that's finally getting better."
It's been a rough season for Paille. Before the double whammy of his concussion and persistent cold, he suffered a broken nose that required surgery when hit in the face by a slap shot off the stick of Islanders defenseman Steve Staios on Nov. 7.
Paille missed three games and returned wearing a full cage to protect his face, and had returned to the half-shield just one game before getting hurt again with another shot to the head. This time it came from a hit rather than a shot, but he holds no grudge against Barch. Instead, Paille takes responsibility for putting himself in a vulnerable position.
"I've looked at it a couple of times," Paille said of the hit from Barch. "He was just going in and finishing his check and he caught me with his head down. It was at that moment I think at the same time my head moved and ran into his shoulder or his head, I'm not quite sure. I thought it was a shoulder. It was just an unfortunate incident where I was slow to react on the puck and he caught me with my head down."
Paille may have been slow to react on that play, but he's been quick to recover from his latest injury.
"He looked fine," Bruins coach Claude Julien said of Paille's first practice. "[Monday] was a non-contact day. He's going through the protocol of what he has to go through, and so far things have been going well."
Julien described Paille's status as now being "day to day," and wouldn't rule out Paille playing on Tuesday.
"Could be," Julien said. "That all depends on how everything goes. He still has to go through a couple things, and that was another stage he went through today [by practicing on Monday]."
