BLADEMASTER

FROM THE WASHINGTON CAPITALS LOCKER ROOM: PowerBar

Every team seems to have one guy who has had his bell rung and winds up on injured reserve with a concussion. Trainers are always administering to players who’ve hit their head on the no-give plexiglass or after somebody has elbowed them in the jaw. When they race out, they’re never too sure what they’re going to find. This isn’t anything like treating a sprained knee or a bum shoulder or a terrible gash. Head injuries are the most difficult thing a trainer sees. “If a guy gets a concussion we like to check his memory, of course (like what’s the score, and who are they playing?), but also his cognitive powers,” said Washington trainer Greg Smith. “Like his ability to remember things in sequence. Like I’ll pick five words at random,…

Memorial Cup host Halifax bolsters offensive arsenal

The Halifax Mooseheads are beginning to look more like a Memorial Cup team after pulling the trigger on a pair of key trades. The picture started taking shape Jan. 6 when the Moose acquired the playmaking center they lacked, a power winger with a scoring touch and a rugged third-liner in deals with the Vai d’Or Foreurs and Drummondville Voltigeurs. The first deal saw Halifax send overage center Jason Troini and two draft picks to Vai d’Or for 20-year-old center Benoit Dusablon and 6-foot-4 winger Nick Greenough. The Mooseheads then shipped 19-year-olds Jonathan Gagnon and Eric Dubois to Drummondville for hulking sniper Jonathan St. Louis. All three of Halifax’s new players stand 6-foot-2 or taller and weigh at least 205 pounds. Greenough and Dusablon played in the 1997 Memorial Cup with Vai d’Or. “Dusablon…

Prospect struggles to stay in NHL

It sure hasn’t been a case of fun in the sun for Daniel Briere. It began last season when the playmaking center, who was the team’s second pick in the first round of the 1996 entry draft, began missing shifts in the third periods of games. That led to being kept out of the lineup altogether and finally, re-assignment to the minors as the Coyotes entered the final stretch of the schedule. And it hasn’t stopped. Phoenix has since traded for two high-profile centers in Robert Reichel and Travis Green and nearly added a third until a deal with the Carolina Hurricanes involving Keith Tkachuk for Keith Primeau caved in at the last minute. “I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t been difficult, not knowing exactly what’s going to happen here,” Briere…