Kariya Still Not Cleared to Travel

By HELENE ELLIOTT and MARK PARGAS

Feb. 9, 1998 12 AM PT

Mighty Duck left wing Paul Kariya, who did not accompany the Canadian Olympic team to Japan because of a concussion he suffered last week, was examined again Sunday by team doctor Craig Milhouse but he has not yet been cleared to travel.

Duck spokesman Rob Scichili said Kariya continues to improve and is being allowed to increase the extent of his physical activity. Scichili said reports claiming Kariya will leave Tuesday for Japan are not correct.

“His status is still day to day,” Scichili said. “I think he will be there. They [team doctors] just don’t know when. . . . When they say he is ready to leave, then he can leave.”

Kariya suffered the concussion, the fourth of his career, on Feb. 1 when he was struck by Chicago defenseman Gary Suter, who was later suspended by the NHL for four games.

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Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

Kariya Still Not Cleared to Travel

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