The statements “injuries happen” and “they’re a part of our game” are both common ones in the world of hockey. It’s not completely unexpected either when you factor in a bunch of 6-foot and over, 200+ pound behemoths with knives on their boots, skating around at speeds faster than cars on residential streets, colliding into each other. If that wasn’t dangerous enough and the legal hitting being a big part of this sport, imagine these monsters with sticks, skating towards the same object — a frozen piece of rubber that they fire at a man with slightly more equipment at speeds of 100km/hour… sometimes faster. Once you add all those facts up, it’s not surprising to anyone that players get hurt on a regular basis.
A dozen games into the 2014-15 NHL regular season and one has to think; this is getting absolutely ridiculous. Out of the 30 teams in the league, only two teams have yet to been hit by the injury plague sweeping across the NHL — The Montreal Canadiens and the Vancouver Canucks. The team currently dealing with the most blows is the Columbus Blue Jackets, who have NINE players sidelined with more than just bumps and bruises. In fact, out of their top-6 that they started the season with, only Ryan Johansen is left standing and he’s been tearing up the league since the start. In fact, the Blue Jackets lost their powerplay quarterback in James Wisniewski (broken finger), as well as both Mark Letestu (groin) and Artem Anisimov (concussion) on the same day. Nathan Horton, the most notable player from the camp in terms of who is out, doesn’t only have his season in question but his entire career, due to his back problems. Anisimov’s concussion was due to a hit delivered by Ottawa Senators’ Eric Gryba.
The Boston Bruins, Calgary Flames, Florida Panthers and Philadelphia Flyers all have five injuries each. The Bruins and Flyers find themselves in a similar situation, most of them being blows to their defensive core. After Peter Chiarelli dealt Johnny Boychuk to the New York Islanders for a couple of draft picks, he immediately felt the loss with the fall of all-star defenseman Zdeno Chara. Torey Krug, likely the most graphic injury out of any team in the league, practically lost a finger due to a slash that was initially ruled as broken. With Kevan Miller also on Injury Reserve with a dislocated shoulder, the Bruins have had to rely heavily on veteran Dennis Seidenberg and the youngster Dougie Hamilton. Hoping to get him back into the line-up sooner rather than later, top centerman David Krejci is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury, which was made public after he was scratched before the game against the Ottawa Senators.
The Flyers defense was already in question before the season started, and that’s when they had no injuries to deal with. Long-time Flyer Chris Pronger is still listed on the IR with post-concussion syndrome — much like Marc Savard of the Bruins — while both Andrew MacDonald and Braydon Coburn were both placed on the IR with matching lower-body injuries. Kimmo Timmonen has also been out since October 7th, dealing with blood clots in both his lower right leg and his lungs. The 39-year-old defenseman, while not overly physical, has been a log on the blue-line with logging big time minutes and putting up points on the board. His absence, along with MacDonald and Coburn, has left the team devastated on the back-end and both Ray Emery and Steve Mason have been dealing with the result of a depleted defensive squad.
Sticking with the defensive side of things, the Tampa Bay Lightning lost their star defenseman in Victor Hedman to a hand injury, forcing him onto the IR for the time being. The Swedish defenseman had 7 points (3 goals, 4 assists) in 5 games this season, 5 of those points coming on the powerplay. The New York Rangers are also without three of their top-4 defensemen going into the month of November. Already without the services of Dan Boyle, who is recovering from a broken hand sustained on October 10th, the Rangers lost both captain Ryan McDonagh (shoulder) and Kevin Klein (foot contusion) on November 2nd. They’ll likely have to rely heavily on the services of Henrik Lundqvist to hold down the fort. Not like he isn’t capable of doing so, just now he has to do it more.
The Panthers celebrated Halloween in true fashion when they were faced with the true horrors of a physical style of hockey. Both Sean Bergenheim and Aleksander Barkov were listed as day-to-day with lower-body injuries while 23-year-old Brandon Pirri suffered a concussion. Meanwhile, Dave Bolland has been out since October 17th with a lower-body injury and Jonathan Huberdeau, who hasn’t particularly had an easy time at the NHL level, has been dealing with the flu. The spooky not-quite-holiday event was also a burden of Toronto Maple Leaf forward Joffrey Lupul, who is now out indefinitely due to a hand injury.
Speaking of the flu, don’t fly to St. Louis. The Blues truly live up to their team name and that’s not even factoring highly-touted free agent signing Paul Stastny (wrist) or the dynamic T.J. Oshie (concussion). The entire team has been battling the flu for some time now and it’s led to poor results on the ice. While Ken Hitchcock has stated that he doesn’t want the team nor the fans to use this sickness as an excuse, it’s hard to concentrate on giving your 100% on the ice when about 50% of that effort is being dumped into the nearest toilet.
The month of October wasn’t too fair with the Calgary Flames, especially their depth at the center position. Sam Bennett, Joe Colborne, Matt Stajan and Mikael Backlund have all been out of the lineup. Fortunately enough for the Flames, their will to survive in the Western Conference has kept them alive and hungry, placing them in the 7th spot in their conference with 14 points and a 6-4-2 record. The Nashville Predators also walked into the season with a hit to their center position with Mike Fisher out due to an Achilles injury. Not the “Achilles heel” of the team, the Predators have started the season better than expected, rushing out of the gates with a 6-2-2 record, good for 14 points and 5th in the Western Conference. Thanks most in part to a few key acquisitions in the off-season, the thriving rookie in Filip Forsberg and the return of Pekka Rinne, once Fisher is ready to return — hopeful for November — the Predators could be THE team to watch in the West.
Sometimes, injuries don’t affect a team to the point of making them a playoff contender or bottom-feeder. Take the Anaheim Ducks, for instance. Defenseman Sheldon Souray has yet to play a game while he deals with a torn ligament in his right wrist. Ben Lovejoy (hand) and Mark Fistric (lower-body injury) are both on the IR while Kyle Palmieri is trying to find his way back after going down to a high ankle sprain back on October 7th. All these injuries have not stopped the Ducks from holding onto the top spot in the NHL. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Kings are without both Marian Gaborik (October 14th, upper-body injury) and Anze Kopitar (October 27th, upper-body injury) yet are still hovering around a playoff spot. While their start to the season has been rather hot-and-cold, the Kings still sport a respectable 6-3-2 record.
Then you have the Carolina Hurricanes. Already expected to be one of the basement teams in the league, they were stripped of the services of their captain Eric Staal before the season even started. Staal suffered a broken leg on October 2nd, forcing him onto the IR and he is still recovering from the injury today. Carolina is currently in last place in the entire league, sporting a 1-6-2 record through 9 games, good for 4 points out of a possible 18. The basement may have a silver lining though as everybody knows Connor McDavid is projected as the highly-touted first overall pick in the 2015 draft, a position that hasn’t been this hyped since Sidney Crosby was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2005, which would make a decade between the two players.
With the game becoming quicker each day and the players only getting bigger and stronger, injuries will continue to happen in the sport of hockey. It’s now only a matter of when will it stop and which teams will strive through the rough patches ahead. Don’t expect them to stop anytime soon but at the same time, one has to think the injuries will become few and far in between as the season rolls along.
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