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Hockey teams more injury riddled in 2009?
By admin | November 16, 2009
Orpik before he got injured
I was full of excitement coming into the 2009-2010 hockey season for quite a few reasons, not the least of which being that my team took home the Stanley Cup last year. (for the uninformed that would be the Pittsburgh Penguins) The Pens did NOT disappoint, winning 7 road games in a row, while setting a franchise record and pushing into the top 5 NHL teams to start with such a great road record. This string of wins, however, did not come cheaply. Along the way, our Champion Penguins stars began slowly dropping onto the IR list. First Gonchar went out with a broken wrist (which DESTROYED our power play in case anyone cared…), then Malkin got benched for a couple of weeks to rest his strained back/shoulder. so began a LONG (and still continuing) string of injuries that seemed never ending. I started to get the feeling that we couldn’t go a game without an injury. We currently have 8 players on the injured list, including 4 of our top defenseman at the time of the writing of this article. (Gonchar, Letang, Orpik and Goligoski who just joined them…) I thought maybe the Penguins were just having an EXTREME case of bad luck, however as I logged in to check on my fantasy team for the first time since signing up this season (yes, I know I’m a horrible fantasy hockey player…sue me…I’ve been busy…lol), I noticed I had 4 people either on DTD or IR. What is happening in the NHL this year? Is it business as usual or are there really more injuries than normal? I don’t have any statistics to back me up, but I believe that this is the most injury riddled season I’ve seen in a long time. I believe that there are a couple of contributing factors.
1. Players are getting bigger and bigger every year, and with that comes bigger hits. Add the open ice head hunting that seems to be going unchecked this year and that spells disaster for quite a few teams. No, I’m not a carebear and don’t want the league to ban checking/fighting, etc so don’t get excited, however, I do believe that they are allowing more ‘questionable’ contact than ever before and I believe that is contributing greatly to the increased injuries. (hmmm…wonder if that means I can blame them for rising health care costs? Lol) I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen players just kill the goalie in the net and nothing gets called. It used to be that if you touched the goalie while he was in his crease, it was an automatic penalty. That, however, is a thing of the past. It seems the thing to do now is to crash the net, knock the goalie senseless and pound the puck in the net…even if the goalie is still holding onto it. Now, I think that’s going a bit far. The goalies are indeed quite padded, however, that doesn’t mean that people should just be able to crash into them going full speed. That’s definitely going to throw a goalie a bit off his game as he’s not going to want that to happen over and over again. But I digress.
2. The season is a bit more compacted this year as they are trying to allow players to play in the Olympics, without interfering with regular season play. Is this just a rumor or truth? This blogger isn’t quite sure, however it sure does seem to make sense. The Penguins are playing something to the tune of 14 back to back games this year. More than I’ve seen them play in a long time. You play that many games that close together, it’s hard to rest up, which in turn makes you more prone to injury.
Whatever the reason for the injuries, it doesn’t make them any easier to accept. I just hope that each of the players is able to return fully healthy and ready to go for the playoffs. There’s nothing sadder than hitting the playoffs and having a really great team get knocked out, just because all their players aren’t healthy.
This has still been an incredible season and I’m loving hockey more than ever. (Especially after the Penguins incredible comeback win with 0.4 seconds on the clock against the Bruins!) It truly is ‘A Great Day for Hockey’. GO PENS!!!
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