The St. Louis Blues have been sparked early by the play of rookie forward Robby Fabbri. Unfortunately for them, Fabbri took an elbow to the head against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday, suffered a concussion and had to leave the game.

The Blues updated the media on Monday evening confirming the concussion and that Fabbri will be out indefinitely. Blues coach Ken Hitchock made a comment about Fabbri's condition that brings the NHL's awareness of concussions into question.

Hitchcock: "We're going to miss Robby. I was surprised about the concussion because he had three great shifts after the concussion." — St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) October 13, 2015

Hitchcock's understanding of a concussion seems to be at odds with reality here. According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms of a concussion "can be subtle and may not be immediately apparent." Perhaps Hitchcock expected a player with a concussion to be incapacitated; that is obviously not the case.

But the fact he was surprised by this speaks to an issue in the NHL. That Fabbri played three shifts after sustaining a major hit to the head is probably a problem, as is Hitchcock's apparent ignorance of the situation. That's a staff and team-wide failure of player safety, and just another indication the NHL has a long way to go in refining concussion protocols.