Pierre Dorion Reveals Ottawa’s Injuries
From ankle sprains to broken fingers, the Sens’ playoff injuries were reported in yesterday’s press conference
There was no denying that some players were playing injured, but the extent may have been more than than we thought. In yesterday’s end-of-season press conference, Pierre Dorion extensively went through all the injuries Sens players were dealing with by the end of the playoffs, a list that contains well over half the main roster.
The most severe of these injuries goes to Derick Brassard, who contrary to Dorion’s statement from yesterday, will in fact require surgery to repair a torn labrum. The injury will set him back around 4-5 months, although Dorion still remains hopeful that he’ll be ready for the start of next season.
It’s the price to pay for making a deep run in the playoffs. As the play intensifies, the likelihood of injuries vastly increases. Many players had never played this much in a single season either, and it didn’t help that their schedule at the end of regular season was tightly condensed.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who was the only player to play all 101 games of the regular season and playoffs, was miraculously left unharmed.
The following is the complete list that Dorion revealed:
- Erik Karlsson was playing on a bad ankle, in addition to the hairline fracture in his foot.
- Mark Borowiecki and Alex Burrows both had a high a ankle sprain.
- Cody Ceci had a damaged finger, saying he broke it around “seventeen times”.
- Zack Smith and Viktor Stalberg both played through “tremendous pain” with abdominal injuries.
- Chris Neil had a “significant” sprained hand.
- Dion Phaneuf had an injured wrist.
- Craig Anderson and Fredrik Claesson were dealing with back issues.
- Tom Pyatt was still recovering from his ankle injury.
- Derick Brassard had a bad shoulder, and will require surgery.
- Marc Methot’s mangled finger was never fully healed.
- Mark Stone was still recovering from his leg injury.
- Ryan Dzingel hurt his wrist in game seven./
Some of these had been known beforehand, such as Karlsson’s fracture and Methot’s finger. Although many of these were unknown, which goes to show the gruelling nature of playoff hockey. Pittsburgh and Nashville have been experiencing the same thing, already losing games from key players such as Ryan Johansen and Patric Hornqvist.
Hopefully everyone can use the offseason to rest up, heal up, and gear up for what should be an exciting 2017-18 season.
