Hockey Docs: March, Peters are longtime medical volunteers at Detroit Red Wings camp

Sep. 24—TRAVERSE CITY — There are few people with more Detroit Red Wings training camp experience in an official capacity than Dr. Michael Peters and Nathan March, D.O.

Maybe Steve Yzerman and a few others could vie for the honor.

Peters and March both have served dutifully at Centre Ice Area during the franchise's training camp and NHL Prospect Tournament every year since 2001, aside from the years with a labor stoppage or COVID-19 cancellation.

And gratis, no less.

"This was a direct tie-in for me — the love of the game, wanting to be involved," said Peters, whose sons have played hockey for Traverse City Central. "Also knowing the game and then being able to recognize those kinds of injuries from the hockey coaching and playing perspective. Then also having my kids go through the (hockey) system, it was a perfect fit. That's why I love getting involved."

The two Traverse City doctors often can't go into detail about their work at the tournament and training camp, due to HIPPA laws and just plain old professional sports secrecy.

Peters, who works at Great Lakes Orthopedic Center, started in 2001, right out of residency for orthopedic surgery. March, a family practice doctor at West Front Primary Care, was in residency at that time and volunteered to assist.

"This is 100 percent fun," March said. "When you volunteer for things like this, you have to have a passion to do it. Just like any other sports medicine coverage, you do it because of the love of the sport. The experiences and quite frankly the people you get to meet through the different organizations is what keeps you coming back."

Other medical personnel help out in various areas, and the NHL Prospects Tournament is additionally staffed by Emergency Medical Services during games.

March and Peters also need to find people to fill in for them on the tournament's Friday, as both are team doctors for area high school football squads — Peters with Traverse City Central and March with Kingsley.

"We don't expect anything in return financially," Peters said. "There's a lot of community support for this in terms of volunteers from every avenue from security on down, so we're just happy to provide the medical care."

The work for Peters and March actually starts well before the tournament and training camp kick off, gathering the supplies needed to stock the medical room — everything from lidocaine to materials needed for casts, suturing and splints. They also have to make sure everything in the medical room is sterile. Peters said the medical room off the Bay Reps/Red Wings locker room in Centre Ice Arena is better than the one at the Wings' former home, Joe Louis Arena.

They staff every game of the prospects tourney and Sunday's Red-White scrimmage the Red Wings play near the end of training camp, putting in about 40-60 hours covering all 12 games in the tournament, plus 10-20 hours of prep work.

The two became the camp medical co-captains in 2005. That requires them to be available 24 hours a day, in case issues arise outside the arena.

"We've had a ton of different physicians in the community who have helped facilitate and volunteer their hours as well," March said. "We both are captains for the medical component. The camp is run purely by volunteers, so there's a lot more to what we do than just us."

That includes dentists who are also on call to perform any needed work. That's been Dr. Mark Krull of Harborside Dental for the last few years.

"We've had any number of specialists of different entities, from cardiothoracic surgeons to hand surgeons to the orthopedic guys to a pulmonologist to general surgeons to help," March said. "All of them volunteer just purely for the love of the game as well."

If a player gets injured during the tournament, March or Peters relay information to teams all over the globe, wherever that player's next landing spot is — whether that's another NHL camp, a Junior team in Canada, AHL franchise or pro squads throughout Europe.

Peters handles issues related to muscles and bones, with much of the rest falling upon March, such as administering testing for players with a suspected concussion.

"You've definitely seen the recognition of concussions and concussion protocol has evolved and been put into place appropriately," Peters said. "Musculoskeletal injuries are treated with ultra caution. These are professional athletes that need quick attention to care, evaluations, X-rays and often even MRIs."

The Red Wings rent a fluoroscanner for the two weeks the franchise is in TC. That gives instant feedback on potential injuries with a live image that's as good as they'll get with anything other than an MRI, and much faster.

"These athletes will come right off the ice, and we'll be able to image their wrist, elbow, shoulder, knee, ankle, foot to rule out a fracture or any type of separation," Peters said. "That way we know how serious the condition is and whether or not they can return to the ice. Most facilities, even at the college level, do not have that in their locker room."

The Wings have one on site at Little Caesars Arena, but the expensive piece of medical equipment is fragile. Moving it can throw off imaging and requires recalibration.

March said the job largely includes stitching (or gluing) facial lacerations from sticks or facial trauma from fights, though fighting has gone down in recent years.

"There's been a lot of trauma," March said. "There's some pretty good facial lacerations that require quite a bit of work, a lot of dental trauma. ... We've seen a lot of changes just in the style of play and the physicality of the play. There were more fights early on."

Now, players tend to say on the bench and only seek medical attention after the game, unless it's something serious, March said.

As the NHL Prospects Tournament shrunk from eight teams to this year's four as more NHL cities host their own, the time demands reduced a bit for game coverages, but NHL safety requirements also increased. The set-up time remains constant.

"What people sometimes forget is they're still real people," March said. "They still have real medical issues and they still have needs. Yes, they're superstar athletes, but at the end of the day, they're just like you and I."

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