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Injuries And Short Summers
by PuckStopsHere on 11/16/09 at 10:52 AM ET
Comments (12)
One problem that can derail a team is injuries. When several core players get hurt simultaneously, it is very hard for a team to continue to compete at their expected level. Predictably, some of the more injured teams this season have been the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings. These are the two teams that have competed in the Stanley Cup finals in each of the last two years and have thus had the shortest summers. Short summers lead to less time to recover from the long NHL season and less time for recurring injuries to get better.
Detroit started off the season with a rash of injuries. Johan Franzen had knee surgery very early in the season. Valtteri Filppula has a broken wrist. Andreas Lilja has missed the entire season so far recovering from a concussion suffered last year. To make matters worse, free agent signee Jason Williams has a broken leg. In October, Detroit seemed to be the team most affected by injuries, though they have recovered from a relatively slow start. Detroit has won seven of their last ten games (including three straight) and currently hold down sixth seed in the West Conference.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have had injuries to more of their core players. Sergei Gonchar broke his wrist. Evgeni Malkin missed eight games with a shoulder injury. It appears that Alex Goligoski will miss some time with a groin injury. Kris Letang, Chris Kunitz, Brooks Orpik, Tyler Kennedy and Maxime Talbot are all out for various reasons. The Penguins have probably been the team most heavily hit by injuries at this point in the season. They are off to a good start nevertheless. They currently hold down fourth seed in the East Conference with 26 points, but they have fallen from a top seed as their injuries have mounted.
There isn’t a clear solution to this problem. Obviously teams want to have deep playoff runs. The problem is one or two deep playoff runs will increase the possibility of injuries in their next season and thus make it harder to repeat. This is another factor to increase the apparent parity in the NHL. Top teams will likely be some of the more injured teams, as they have the shortest summer breaks. This shows how close players are getting to their breaking points with the heavy NHL schedule. Add in an Olympiad this year and the race to the Stanley Cup becomes even more of an endurance race than usual. It is a reasonable bet to pick teams that did not have deep playoff runs last year to be better able to survive the endurance race. The “usual suspects” in Pittsburgh and Detroit have been showing effects of two consecutive short summers. They remain top teams, but it will be hard to make another deep Stanley Cup run after another long season.
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Tags: Detroit+Red+Wings, Pittsburgh+Penguins,
Comments
Are you really talking about seeding in the playoffs right now? It’s the start of November not the end of March. Does it really matter who is in the top spot right now?
Posted by YYZerman on 11/16/09 at 01:08 PM ET
no, you’re righ,t it doesn’t matter who’s in top spot (as pen proved last year), that’s not what i meant. what i meant was that if a team can keep getting some points with a lot of injuries and key guys out, then maybe the effects of the injuries wont be so bad in the long run and guys will have a bit of rest that they wouldnt have gotten otherwise (after having short summers two years in a row).
Posted by Greg on 11/16/09 at 01:39 PM ET
Sorry Greg, I was talking about this poorly written article.
Posted by YYZerman on 11/16/09 at 02:26 PM ET
You really think that playing in May broke Filppula’s wrist months later? You really think that the Red Wings playing in May broke Williams’s leg even though Williams wasn’t on the team last year? You really think watching the Red Wings playing in May made Lilja’s post-concussion syndrome last longer? I would think that this blog is a parody, but it’s not funny.
Posted by Muero on 11/16/09 at 03:24 PM ET
Tired players are more likely to get injured. It is not a coincidence that the two teams that went to the finals the last two years have had injury problems.
Posted by PuckStopsHere on 11/16/09 at 03:26 PM ET
“Short summers lead to less time to recover from the long NHL season and less time for recurring injuries to get better.”
Yes, but there is absolutely no correlation between the length of Detroit’s playoff run last year and injuries sustained by Williams, Filppula, and Franzen, this year.
Think about it. Broken wrist, broken leg, torn ACL. None of that has anything to do with last year.
Posted by some kid from brooklyn on 11/16/09 at 03:27 PM ET
Franzen missed games last year with a knee injury early in the season. His knees take a beating from his style of play. A longer summer might have prevented his torn ACL.
Posted by PuckStopsHere on 11/16/09 at 03:31 PM ET
You seem to be insinuating that a torn ACL, broken wrists and a broken leg are due to recurring injuries. Although Malkin’s shoulder (of which I don’t know the specifics) and Goligoski’s groin may have benefited from more time off, I believe it’s a bit presumptuous to link them all together for an argument’s sake.
I think you threw Jason Williams in there to further the point that mounting injuries on a team suck, (with which I wholeheartedly agree) but it would be important to note that his season ended in mid-April last year, and he had quite a long summer to prepare to breaking his fibula.
I think this is a good season (and next) to test your hypothesis about having the greatest wear on the best teams, as teams with less superstars will be better rested down the stretch due to the Olympic break.
Posted by MarkK from Maryland on 11/16/09 at 03:36 PM ET
Goligoski, Filppula, Williams, and Lilja don’t belong in this dicussion at all.
If you are going to make the point that long seasons, especially post season play is going to affect a team’s injury list, then that is fine. However, padding your list with players that don’t fit the point your making weakens your argument.
Goligoski played 2 games in last year’s playoffs
Filppula broke his wrist on a freak play that cannot be adequately contributed to fatigue.
Williams’ broken fibula fits in the same category as Filppula, especially considering his relative lack of playoff games.
Lilja was injured during the regular season and missed the entire playoffs thanks to a punch to the head that made his brain bleed. I doubt you can attribute that to everyday wear-and-tear catching up to him.
I don’t follow the Penguins as closely as others, but I would bet that Gonchar’s broken wrist is also an injury that you can’t tie to fatigue, which should take him off the list as well.
Bottom line is that the Red Wings have played more games than anybody else in the NHL since the 07-08 season and the only injury that can arguably be tied to a wear-and-tear fatigue injury is Franzen’s.
Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 11/16/09 at 05:20 PM ET
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While i agree it wont be easy for either to get back to finals, as long as they’re not too serious, maybe time off due to some injuries is just self correction and getting the break their bodies need. Gonchar missed over half the year, and was well rested just as hopefully they’ll be this year when playoffs roll around.
the trickiest thing in my opinion will be maintaining some home ice in the playoffs by still winning despite the injuries now.
Posted by Greg on 11/16/09 at 12:34 PM ET