Every year, NHL teams deal with injuries during the Stanley Cup playoffs, as players fight through the pain of broken bones, torn ligaments, sprains and cuts.
On Monday, Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion went through a laundry list of players dealing with injuries, following his team’s run to the Eastern Conference Final. The detail he went into shows the price some players paid, as the Senators pushed the Penguins to double overtime of Game 7 in the third round.
It starts with Erik Karlsson, who was dealing with more than hairline fractures in his foot.
-- Karlsson: In addition to dealing with the fractures, Dorion said his star defenseman had muscle issues with his foot.
-- Mark Borowiecki: High-ankle sprain. “He would’ve been ready for Game 1 if we got to the Stanley Cup Final.”
-- Alex Burrows: High-ankle sprain.
-- Cody Ceci: Broken finger. “I think Cody had his finger broken 17 times. I’m not sure exactly how many times. It got broken during the year, it got broken in the playoffs (versus the Rangers). It was put back into place and it broke again. He needed to freeze it before every game.”
-- Zack Smith: Pulled rib and abdominal muscles.
-- Viktor Stalberg: Rib injury.
-- Chris Neil: “Significant” sprained hand.
-- Dion Phaneuf: Wrist injury.
-- Craig Anderson: Back injury. His back “was in terrible shape during the Rangers series, which we managed to win, so that says a lot about his character playing through the pain.”
-- Tom Pyatt: Ankle injury.
-- Derick Brassard: Should injury.
-- Fredrik Claesson: Back injury.
-- Marc Methot: Finger injury. Methot suffered the injury on a Sidney Crosby slash in the regular season. “It never healed to 100 per cent through the playoffs.”
-- Mark Stone: Knee injury.
-- Ryan Dzingel: Wrist injury.
The good news for the Senators out of all this? Dorion added that, as of now anyway, none of the aforementioned players require surgery for their injuries.