Last season brought incredibly bad luck in regards to injury for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Steven Stamkos played just 17 games before going down for the rest of the season, and they even lost three different centers all in a single game late in the year.
2017-18 has been much different, until a few weeks ago when Victor Hedman was ruled out for three to six weeks with a knee injury. The team obviously suffered without their Norris Trophy candidate, but that won’t last long. Hedman took a full morning skate with the team and is a game-time decision for the Lightning tonight. The injury occurred on January 11th, less than three weeks ago.
- Michael Frolik has been activated from injured reserve in Calgary, and is expected to play tonight. Frolik hasn’t played in over a month after taking a puck to the face against the San Jose Sharks, and will look to get back on track right away against the Vegas Golden Knights. The 29-year old winger has just 15 points on the season, but is a huge part of the Flames even-strength attack and one of their best penalty killing forwards.
- The illness that kept Seth Jones from appearing in the All-Star game won’t keep him out of any regular season action, and Bruce Boudreau isn’t happy about it. The head coach of the Minnesota Wild called it “ridiculous” that Jones would be allowed to play without serving the normal one-game suspension for avoiding the All-Star festivities at the last minute, but according to Michael Russo of The Athletic (subscription required) the decision was made by the league in order to prevent any outbreak of the flu among the best players in the game. Jones had wanted to play, and now won’t be punished for his absence.
Now if anyone doesn’t want to participate in the all-star game, all they have to do is say they’re ill and they can get away with not getting suspended for a game.
The NHL is so inconsistent and stupid for changing the rules. If you ‘miss’ the game for any reason, you should have to miss the first NHL game back. Black and White. Then nobody complains.
If the NHL made the decision that Jones wasn’t going to play, then he shouldn’t have to sit out. He wasn’t the one that pulled out. The league pulled him
Don’t let facts get in the way of a good argument!
Agree completely. If the league said it was up to the player and he decides to sit it out, then he shouldn’t be allowed to play in the next game. But if the league forces them to sit, its not fair to the team or player to force them to miss the next game.