The Carolina Hurricanes can breathe a bit easier today.
The team announced that captain Eric Staal suffered a third-degree MCL sprain while playing for Team Canada against Sweden at World Championships and will not need surgery to repair the injury. The team anticipates it will take three months to recover and he’ll be ready for the start of next season in the fall.
That diagnosis is a worth a major sigh of relief for the organization as they feared the worst after seeing him go down at the annual tournament. Now he’ll be on track to return during training camp and not miss a beat.
In case you missed it, Staal was injured on a vicious knee-on-knee hit by Sweden’s Alex Edler in their shootout victory over Canada in the quarterfinals. Staal was knocked out of the game and Edler was suspended for the remainder of the tournament.