Music: {allcanada} Scatchard had hoped to leave hockey on his own terms

VANCOUVER - The only thing Sidney Crosby (notes) has in common with Dave Scatchard (notes) is a concussion, and that alone should give the National Hockey League star pause after the journeyman former Vancouver Canuck retired this week.

Scatchard, from Hinton, Alta., via Salmon Arm, made the NHL as a rookie with the Canucks in 1997 and went on to play 659 games over 12 seasons before doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix told the 35-year-old on Friday that he must retire or risk further injury to his brain.

Scatchard, who made a comeback in 2009 after missing most of two years due to post-concussion syndrome, suffered another head injury on a hit late last season while playing for the St. Louis Blues' farm team in Peoria, Ill.

In interviews this week with the Toronto Star and TSN Radio, Scatchard said he is unable to push his three young children on the swings or undertake any activity that involves abrupt movements.

"After talking with my mom and my dad and my wife, they all expressed concerns about my health," Scatchard told TSN's James Cybulski. "The doctor [at the Mayo Clinic] approached me and said: 'I'm sorry, that's the end. You won't be playing hockey any more.' He said: 'The pictures we see of your brain show some damage and some things have happened to you.'

"In a way, I'm happy that it is just so clear-cut because there's no way for me to talk myself into playing. I'm going to miss it like crazy. I just wish [retirement] could have been more on my own terms. I'm very blessed to have the career I did."

Scatchard said this was his third concussion in the NHL.

He played eight games last season for the Blues, his sixth NHL team, and finished his career with 128 goals, 269 points and 1,040 penalty minutes. But the physical centre played only 17 playoff games and never advanced beyond the Stanley Cup's first round. Ideally, he said he'd have liked to play three or four more seasons with a team capable of making a playoff run.

The Pittsburgh Penguins' Crosby, on the other hand, has already won at age 24 everything possible. He has a Stanley Cup ring and Hart Trophy and scored the gold-medal-winning goal for Team Canada at the 2010 Olympics. Makes you wonder why — with conflicting reports about a setback in his recovery from a concussion – there is any urgency for Crosby to be ready for the season-opener against the Canucks on Oct. 6.

He hasn't played since Jan. 5, one game after he was hit in the head from behind by Washington Capital David Steckel. That play, unpenalized by referees and unpunished by the league, sadly defined the NHL's unwillingness to protect its players.

FLANAGAN SUICIDE HITS HARD: The suicide Wednesday of former Cy Young-winner Mike Flanagan in Baltimore ripped open a lot of wounds in Vancouver, where people are still coping with the death last week of former Canuck Rick Rypien (notes).

Police reported the former Orioles' pitcher had been upset about financial issues.

Again, Rypien had no known issues beyond his clinical depression, which only reinforces how sinister the mental disease.

Although Rypien's suicide, following so close to Derek Boogaard (notes)'s drug overdose, has further fuelled debate about fighting in hockey and the emotional and physical effect on those who do it, I don't believe the ex-Canuck killing himself had anything to do with fighting.

Apart from the fact the 185-pound Rypien was not a "heavyweight" whose primary job was fighting, depression predated his professional hockey career.

WHERE ART THOU? If you're wondering why there have been almost no comments about Rypien by former Canuck teammates, it's because they're not here. One of the early signs that preparation for the upcoming season has been affected by playing until mid-June is that very few players have yet arrived in Vancouver to skate ahead of training camp.

B.C. boys Manny Malhotra (notes) and Dan Hamhuis (notes) are around, but Swedish defenceman Alex Edler is believed to be the only out-of-towner to return to Vancouver. In past summers, there were usually enough Canucks in town by the middle of August for players to organize their own skating sessions.

"If you look at the experiences of the last four or five years, it does take teams a little bit of time [to recover]," Canuck general manager Mike Gillis said this week, adding that he's unconcerned.

"We're really excited about some of the new guys we're bringing in and the elements they'll bring. There are going to be opportunities at the start of the year because of injuries and different things."

Canucks Mason Raymond (notes) [back], Dan Hamhuis [abdominal] and Ryan Kesler (notes) [hip] could all miss the start of the upcoming season. Crosby won't be the only one missing if he doesn't play on Oct. 6.

HORTON HEARS A BOO-HOO: Just when the vitriol of the Canucks-Bruins final had dissipated, Boston forward Nathan Horton (notes) complained Wednesday to reporters that Aaron Rome (notes)'s apology for knocking him out with a late hit was unsatisfactory. Horton, who is thankfully symptom-free after the concussion he suffered on Rome's dangerous hit in Game 3, was miffed the Canuck sent him only a text message.

"I'd have a little bit more respect to actually make a phone call," Horton said.

Rome, whose suspension for the rest of the series coincided with the Bruins' surge, reportedly was upset by Horton going public with a grievance that seems pretty petty.

I'm upset I got neither a text nor phone call from either one. And that the Canucks and Bruins don't play until Jan. 7 in Boston.