Dropping Like Flies in Philly

Vol. I, No. 53

Gagne, Carter, Laperriere, Seidenberg, Stuart, Krejci, Sturm...seven players out with injuries for the Boston - Philadelphia playoff contest. Boston's Marc Savard just coming back from a regular season injury. Both teams missing their leading scorers. The Flyers are down three. The Bruins are down four, with another just getting back from injured reserve.  That means over 15% of each team (20 players dress for each game) are down and out.  

This is a sport where playing hurt is not only common - it's normal. Now, include the goaltenders, and the degree of hurt in hockey goes off the scale for all other team sports (with the possible exception of rugby, but let's save that reference for a column on the truly insane).

Despite all the padding, if you ever see a goaltender after a long season, black and blue marks mark the body in places where the pads are joined. By the wrists, or between the leg pads and chest protectors, pucks have a way of finding small spaces and making their mark. Especially when they are fired at 100 mph. A frozen puck, on edge, is a lethal one inch projectile with the hardness of a brick. Think about police firing rubber bullets and you'll get the picture.  

Catchers behind home plate are handling marshmellows by comparison. And when a fastball specialist really brings the heat, have you ever heard a catcher squeal with pain in his catching glove?  It happens, even though he he has a clear view of the ball as it comes in, from only one point on the mound.

Goalies don't have those clear views, if the attacking offense in front of them is doing the right job in screening incoming shots. The shots come from all angles, from high and low, from near and far.  Now imagine the puck heading for all parts of the goalies' body - or aimed at his head by a a point man trying to intimidate the netminder.  The shots sometimes get past the blocker, the stick, the glove and the padding. That's why netminders are often walking baskets of aches and pains.

The hockey playoffs only make things worse. Teams block shots like crazy. Ian Laperriere paid a steep price in the first Philly series against the Devils. The pain comes when a hard shot is blocked, hits a shin on the side, or the back of an unprotected leg. If a player is lucky, there is no lasting injury. If he is not so fortunate, well, it's a quick out from the playoffs and summer vacation (and rehab) begins early.

That is the nature of this sport, even without injuries caused by high sticks, skates, blindside boarding, crosschecking to the head, tearing helmets off and all of the other ways that forces impact on human bodies, travelling at high speeds, in this fastest of sports.

Maybe the only riskier activity is playing polo while on a motorcycle, riding without a helmet.  Ben Rothlisberger might fit right into the NHL, if only he could learn how to skate.

Hockey Rules.

PS Boston, despite the injuries, beat Philadelphia tonight in a road game at the Wachovia Center. The Bruins have a commanding 3-0 series lead, with four more games to come (and two more home games in Boston).  Things are looking rosy for the Bruins at the moment. Teams come back from 3-1 deficits on rare occasion. But down 0-3? All that Philly has to do now is win the next four games in a row. Three weeks ago, Philly was struggling to get into the playoffs, and did so in the last regular season game.  The Bruins hung on to 7th place - and behind the goaltending of Tuukka Rask, are playing higher than that.