Maurice doesn't think teams should reveal injuries, except concussions

Paul Maurice isn't quite on Ken Hitchcock's side of the injury transparency debate.

"He must not have any," Maurice, the head coach of the Winnipeg Jets, quipped to reporters with a smile Monday when asked about the Dallas Stars bench boss' plea for teams to end vague injury updates in the NHL.

Maurice then referred to doctor-patient confidentiality to make his case.

"You're not allowed to tell anybody what a doctor knows," he said. "They've got laws. People can get sued for letting that kind of information (out). I don't really have the right to come out and tell you how a guy is feeling, but we do anyway."

He then explained why he believes sharing more information would be detrimental to his team.

"I would think on average (that) somewhere between nine and 11 players, about half your hockey team, every single night, has something that they're dealing with. Bone bruises, I had a guy playing with cracked ribs. I don't want anybody to know that."

Head injuries are the one area Maurice said should continue to be addressed and disclosed. The Jets head coach praised his backup goaltender, Steve Mason, for being upfront about the concussion with which the netminder was just diagnosed.

"I do think we have a responsibility to show our league is handling them in a certain way," Maurice said.

Hitchcock implied last Tuesday that he wanted to end the "dance" of saying "upper body" and "lower body" when reporters will inevitably find out what the specific nature of an injury is shortly thereafter.

The Stars head coach said he doesn't believe teams and players target other players when they know their injuries, and Maurice agreed with that Monday.