Sucks To Be Them

Designed for the sole purpose of ruining the skillfully crafted rosters of fantasy hockey managers everywhere, pre-season injuries have reared their ugly heads once again. This year, we already have a few that beg the question, “What did these guys do to piss off the hockey gods?”

First up is Carolina. Now, it’s one thing if one of your top wingers gets hit when he’s not ready for it, takes a puck to the skate while crashing the net, etc in a pre-season game and has to miss some time as a result. You expect that, and you deal with it when it comes. But losing Justin Williams for four to six months due to off-ice exercise gone wrong is a different story. Just reading about this one gives me chills:

“I was right next to him. He just stopped and there was a big pop,” LaRose said today. “We all heard it — a big pop.”

Just like that, Williams had torn his right Achilles tendon.

Ugghghhh. On top of the absence of Erik Cole and the questionable return time frame of Rod Brind’Amour, this is gonna be one tough pill for the ‘Canes to swallow.

Then, we get word that Detroit center Valtteri Filppula will likely miss the Wings’ first two pre-season games after jamming his thumb into the boards on a hit from behind during a scrimmage – courtesy of teammate Aaron Downey. Wait… what?? Hey Downey: Numbers visible = NO HIT. I know his role on the team in the past hasn’t required him to use his head for tasks other than taking punches, but come on. Considering he’s fighting for the last spot on an already overcrowded offensive roster, this probably wasn’t the smartest move.

Of course, no pre/early-season injury discussion would be complete without mentioning the St. Louis Blues. Never ones to disappoint, they picked up where last year’s string of bad luck left off (namely this, this, and this) and took things to a whole new level of absurdity. Golf Cart: 1, Erik Johnson: 0. Despite the fact that I hate the actual ‘golf’ part of golfing, I’ve operated a golf cart on a course twice. Both times I averaged roughly one beer per one-and-a-half to two holes which, after 13 or 14 holes, may have led me to do things that could be described as, ahem, somewhat unsafe. However, I am certain of one thing: at no point was I ever in danger of tearing my ACL. In fact, when I recall the parking brake mechanism (which was supposedly Johnson’s downfall), I honestly can’t think of a way in which a person could hurt themselves so severely on it, let alone a professional athlete. Such is life for the St. Louis Blues, though.