The Tampa Bay Lightning, like any victorious team in the NHL, had to battle through most countless injuries in the postseason. Today at his end-of-season press availability, Julien BriseBois gave some updates on the health of his players. First and foremost was Victor Hedman, who tore his meniscus on March 30 and will get surgery to repair it today. The Norris finalist is expected to be out just two to four weeks, meaning he is not in danger of missing next season.
As Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times reports, BriseBois also revealed that both Ryan McDonagh and Barclay Goodrow broke their hands in the playoffs, while Nikita Kucherov had a non-displaced rib fracture that required an injection before each game. These injuries are in addition to the broken fibula that Alex Killorn had previously revealed, which kept him out of all but one game in the Finals, and various other ailments (Blake Coleman was seen with his arm in a sling) that were not mentioned by BriseBois.
It has almost become a ritual at this point, as teams finish their postseason runs, to reveal countless major injuries that the roster was battling through. Tampa Bay is no different than every other team in this regard, but it is still impressive to hear how the players continued to perform through injury. Hedman, for instance, averaged nearly 25 minutes a night in the series against Montreal, eclipsing 26 in each of the final two games.
All of the injured players, whether they are getting surgery or not, are expected to be ready for training camp according to BriseBois.
Toughest sport to survive intact through the Stanley Cup finals. One must admire the mental toughness of NHL players to gut it out to win. I love our sport.
Look at all the players that won’t be ready until the playoffs next year!
^ I chortled
Worst injury was these clowns denting the bowl of the Stanley Cup.
Gotta love hockey players playing through pain whether it be broken bones or tears. Yet guys like LBJ that are 6’8” 250lbs of muscle in the NBA get carried off the court by 6 pallbearers when they tweak a muscle and then sit out games. Long gone are the days of Willis Reed…
Obviously hockey is a tough sport, and the Stanley Cup is hardest championship to win. But I always laugh at these end-of-year injury releases. Everyone is so secretive during the season, and then at the end of the year, for no real good reason, they reveal all of these injuries. The only real reason is to say, ‘Look how tough these guys are! Look at what they went through!’ Still impressive they play through this stuff, though, no doubt.