Our Feature Story
As published in the UConn Advance.
Health Center Physician Works with USA Hockey
Team
By Chris DeFrancesco
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UConn’s Dr. Robert Arciero, center, with
Team USA assistant coach Mike Sullivan, left, and goaltender
Robert Esche during a practice in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in
May. USA Hockey selected Arciero as its team physician for
the 2008 International Ice Hockey Federation World Hockey
Championship tournament.
Photo by Tom Mulligan |
For the second time in five years, USA Hockey chose Dr. Robert
Arciero, one of UConn’s sports medicine physicians, to be lead team
physician for the International Ice Hockey Federation World Hockey
Championship tournament held in May.
While that role may have kept Arciero, a nationally recognized
expert in knee and shoulder surgery, out of the operating room for
nearly a month, it also kept him busy.
“We had two players who had significant knee injuries and had to
be sent back to their home teams,” he says. “Then I took care of a
couple of concussions, and various contusions caused by either stick
or puck hitting wrist or shin or foot.
“The other thing is viruses and cold symptoms. Somebody would
come in and say, ‘Hey, Doc, my head is all stuffed up,’ and I had a
whole med bag, I could look in their ears, listen to them. So I did
a little bit of ‘real doctor’ work too, because I’m their team
doctor.”
Team USA’s 2008 roster consisted entirely of professional
players. Some of the standouts were Brandon Dubinsky of the New York
Rangers, Phil Kessel and Mark Stuart of the Boston Bruins, Patrick
Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks (a favorite to win the National
Hockey League’s top rookie award), and Jason Pominville, team
captain of the Buffalo Sabres.
The 2008 tournament took place May 2-18 in Halifax, Nova Scotia,
and Quebec City, Quebec.
A typical day for Arciero started with a meeting with the team
trainers, whose job it is to make sure the players are ready for the
next game.
For the most part, the schedule alternated between practice days
and game days. On game day, Arciero showed up at least two hours
early, because, he says, the players’ pre-game routines are quite
involved.
“A lot of them ride the bike, do some weight lifting, they do
plyometrics, they play a little soccer, and it’s a ritual that they
go through before every game,” he says.
“Then they go in, they make sure their sticks are the way they
want them, they make sure their blades are the way they want – there
are two skate-sharpening guys. When they get ready to take the ice,
they’re as perfect as they can be, in every sense of the word. It’s
not, ‘show up, throw the stuff on and go skate.’ There’s a lot of
preparation.”
One thing the team couldn’t have prepared for was a disputed goal
in Game 5. A replay showed that a puck which had slipped in through
the side of the net was allowed to stand as a goal for Finland.
The Americans ended up losing 3-2, their second defeat of the
tournament. The International Ice Hockey Federation issued a formal
apology to Team USA and fired the referee who made the call.
“But that’s it,” Arciero says. “We lost, you can’t change that.”
Team USA won its next game, against Norway, then lost a rematch
with Finland in the quarterfinals to finish fifth. Russia defeated
Canada to take the gold medal.
Still, Arciero says, working with the team was a positive
experience.
“The reward I get is professional gratification,” he says.
“I’ve been chosen on the basis of a career devoted to sports
medicine by a governing institution. The USA Hockey medical staff
has trusted these world-class athletes to me for three weeks to be
their doctor. What I love is that they’re as professional in their
approach to the games and the coaches as I am to my profession.
“I think the unique thing about hockey players,” Arciero says,
“is that they’re used to a lot of pain, and there’s a sort of
unwritten rule or unspoken culture that you don’t come out of games
unless you’re really broken. I enjoy taking care of them.
“They’re appreciative, they treat you like a person, they don’t
have a chip on their shoulder, and they don’t have any poses,” he
adds.
“It’s pretty cool.”
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