Add Tyler Richards to the frightening concussion stories.
Richards, a goaltender with the Vancouver Stealth in the wintertime National Lacrosse League and the Burnaby Lakers in the summertime Western Lacrosse Association, announced his retirement from the sport on Friday, citing three concussions in the past five years.
They weren’t from collisions around the net, like you might expect. They came from saves off his mask.
“The last one wasn’t even a hard shot,” Richards, 28, said, pointing to a stop he made against Jeremy Noble of the Colorado Mammoth on March 29 in Denver that led to Richards missing the next five Stealth games. “He hit me right in the chin, and it knocked my head forward. Right away, I could feel like I was zoning out. After the game, I didn’t feel right. We flew home the next day and I felt awful.
“If it was that easy for me to get one, you have to concerned about it being a recurring thing.”
Richards says that doctors haven’t told him to quit playing, but he said he didn’t want to get to the point where he was forced out.
By day, he’s a national manager for CBV Collection Services. It’s largely a statistical analysis job, he says.
He’s been diagnosed with a concussion five times in his career.
“Look at what’s happening in the NHL right now. Look at the NFL,” he said. “This job of lacrosse is great, but I plan to have my real job for the next 30 years or so.
“After what happened in March, I had to take a step back and say, ‘What is this really worth to me?’ I love the game. I will miss it. I have to think about my long-term health, though.”
It’s difficult to come up with any hard data on goaltenders in lacrosse suffering concussions from shots to the mask.
As for how hard players can fire the ball, American star Paul Rabil, a teammate of Richards when the team played under the Washington Stealth banner in Everett, has had his shot clocked at over 100 miles per hour, for instance.
“Has it sunk in that I’m not playing anymore? I don’t think so. I think it will start kicking in around November, when all the guys are gearing up for the (NLL) season and I’m not,” said Richards. “Kyle Sorensen (the Stealth captain who missed last season with a knee injury) is staying at our house. I was telling him that when he starts getting ready for training camp it will be a hard time for me.”
Richards was regarded as one of the game’s clutch netminders. He helped steer the Stealth to the NLL finals in 2010, 2011 and 2013, highlighted by winning the championship that first year.
He leaves the NLL with a 32-42 regular season record, along with a 12.09 goals against and a .771 save percentage. In the playoffs, he was 8-2, with an 11.05 goals against and a .794 save percentage.
In seven seasons in the WLA, he won the top goaltender award twice and was first all-star twice. He helped the New Westminster Salmonbellies to three straight berths in the Mann Cup national Senior A final series from 2008-10.
With Richards out of the picture, the Stealth goaltending load will likely fall to Eric Penney, 21, who had some shining moments last season as a rookie, led by making 59 stops in an 11-9 road win over the New England Black Wolves. He was 1-4 on the season, with a 14.74 goals against and a .754 save percentage.
Richards was 4-9, with a 14.57 goals against and a .739 save percentage.
Richards scored a goal in the 21-15 win over the Minnesota Swarm on Feb. 28. it was the first tally for a goalie in the NLL since 2009.
