There is no more timely and popular topic in hockey these days than blows to the head, and the damage they can cause.

And there are few guys in the game with more first-hand knowledge of the subject than Penguins assistant coach Tony Granato.

He recalls having about a half-dozen concussions over the course of his 13-season NHL playing career, but one incident -- one that seemed relatively innocuous at the time -- proved to be far more problematic than the others.

It had to be addressed not with rest or medication, but with surgery.

Brain surgery.

Granato, then playing for the Los Angeles Kings, went head-first into the boards during a game in Hartford on Jan. 25, 1996. He subsequently began to experience severe headaches, but shrugged them off as the unfortunate byproduct of what had happened in that game against the Whalers.

"It just seemed like one of those ones where you bang your head, you get up, you see a few stars, you feel foggy for a little while and you'll be fine the next day," he said.

Uh, not quite. It turned out that he had a blood clot in his brain, and needed a four-hour operation to remove an abnormal cluster of blood vessels in the left temporal lobe of his brain.

There were concerns at the time that Granato's career could be over, but he eventually returned and played five more seasons before retiring in 2001.

Granato is not a big man, but never played like he was aware of that. He had no qualms about venturing into high-traffic and high-risk areas, even though he realized opponents would be looking for a chance to punish him.

"When I went across the middle of the ice, I expected Scott Stevens to come across and run me, or try to put a good lick on me," he said.

"There were a couple of guys on each team who, if you put your head down or went into a certain area, you were going to pay a price for it. But you were aware of it and knew it was coming, and hopefully, at least you know how to protect yourself somewhat."

And while he obviously would like to see injuries of all kinds reduced, Granato believes that legislation actually can be counterproductive if it's overdone, that players can be lulled into believing that the rulebook will take care of them when it's actually their responsibility to do so.

"The more we protect players and the more we try to protect them -- tell them you can't hit guys there, and you can't hit guys there -- the less players defend themselves," he said. "That's my belief. I don't know if that's right or wrong.

"Now, when guys go back for pucks and they're along the boards, they turn their backs on the (opposing) player all the time. We couldn't do that 15 or 20 years ago. You'd get run through the glass. You had to learn to go into that area and protect yourself a different way.

"The more we try to protect players, the less they're going to be aware of the dangers on the ice."

Clearly, Granato is not among those who believe that whatever is ailing the game can be dealt with solely by revising the rules that govern it.

"I'd love to see us be able to take some of the injuries out of the game, but where do you draw the line?" he said. "I don't know.

"We don't know the answer, or we would have put something into play a long time ago. Why would we wait until 2010 to figure out that guys have head injuries?

"Of course you do. Guys are going 30 mph at each other and there's ice and there are boards. It's a physical game."

The Penguins will have a lot going for them during the playoffs this spring.

History isn't one of them.

Trying to become the first team to win the Stanley Cup in consecutive years is daunting enough; if the Penguins happen to end up in a best-of-seven series against New Jersey, they'll have to defy every precedent the Elias Sports Bureau could turn up.

The Penguins were 0-6 against the Devils this season and, according to Elias, could become the fifth team to face a club in the postseason after being swept by it in a season series of six or more games.

The first four that tried, failed.

The teams that swept those season series and won in the playoffs, and the clubs they dominated, were:

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