When the Dallas Stars spent BIG (Mike Smith and forwards Jussi Jokinen and Jeff Halpern and a 4th round draft pick in 2009) to acquire Brad Richards from the Tampa Bay Lightning, it was seen as the final offensive piece needed to put the Dallas Stars over the hump.
In his first game with the Stars, Brad Richards had FIVE(!) assists, and looked like a whole new man. It was easy for any Stars fan to get excited about their new acquisition.
Since that game, however, Richards has just one goal and four assists in 11 games, and now finds his 'Ironman' streak at an end. Not surprisingly, Brad Richards, who was -25 with the Lightning, is -2 in his brief tenure with the Stars.
Richards said hasn't been feeling well overall and didn't play in the Dallas Stars' game in Phoenix, which the Stars won 4-2.
Richards said it's not flu and it's not lingering effects from the mono he had earlier in the year. However, he has to be feeling really bad because he will stop a streak of 354 consecutive games played by missing Thursday night's game. It was only the third game he has missed in his pro career. The other two were due to a death in his family.
The Stars are 2-7-2 with Richards in the lineup, falling from second overall in the NHL and in the Western Conference to fifth place in the west.
Apparently, Richards has been battling mono all season, and that could account for his poor play. Don't you think, however, the Dallas Stars should have realized they were getting damaged goods, in the first place? Did they not do their homework?
While I acknowledge Richards' awesome playmaking skills, I have to wonder why the Dallas Stars thought he'd fit in well with their team. Richards, despite 500 points in 564 career games, is an overall -57. Even with his great offensive output, Richards is one of the biggest defensive liabilities in the game, and not the type of player usually associated with the Dallas Stars.
If Richards can't shake off this mono cloud over his head, the Stars may very well win the award for worst trade of the season. Don't forget, Brad Richards is a mighty big cap hit for a player who has so many warts.
Just 10 months ago, Rick '15 Years!' DiPietro, the 'savior' goaltender of the New York Islanders franchise, had to undergo major hip surgery on his left side. This prompted me to comment, "Any time you sign a player to a long-term contract, a major injury is a big worry. When that player is your #1 goalie and you signed him to the most insane deal ever, you have to hope this hip problem doesn't become a constant thorn in Ricky's side. Hip problems doesn't always just go away, as any senior citizen will tell you."
I guess it is no coincidence that DiPietro's play regressed quite a lot this season, as he dropped from 91.9% to 90.2% in the save percentage department. Rick tweaked his hip at the All-Star break, and never seemed to be in the fine form that he showed in his breakout campaign. The Isles, in the meantime, lost any hope at making the playoffs as their #1 goaltender looked about as good as Dan Cloutier handling a Nick Lidstrom shot.
Two hip injuries, some nasty concussions ... and the Isles still have over a decade left on this guy's contract. While DiPietro was perfectly healthy when he signed that massive deal, it just goes to show that any player can break down like an American-made car once they actually go on a road trip or two.
The defenceman who signed a five-year, $27 million contract in the offseason will not suit up with team for the rest of year, following arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder late last week.
Souray was placed on the injured reserve list in January after aggravating his shoulder in a game against the Florida Panthers. He originally suffered a second-degree sprain on the same shoulder in an Oilers' game at Vancouver in October.
Souray certainly wasn't justifying his monster price tag with a measly three goals and -7 in 26 games. At an average $5.4mil per season, Souray has racked up a nice $207,692 per game played this season. Of course, the Oilers knew they were getting a player with long string of injuries, right? Right?
As if two straight losses against the lowly Phoenix Coyotes wasn't bad enough for the Colorado Avalanche, the Rocky Mountain club will now be without power winger Ryan Smyth, who will be gone 6-8 weeks with a broken ankle. This is already on the heels of captain Joe Sakic's hernia surgery, which will keep him out of the lineup for just as long, if not longer.
"The fracture was discovered following additional medical tests which included an MRI exam," Avalanche head trainer Matthew Sokolowski said yesterday in a release. "We expect him to make a full recovery."
In the ultra competitive Northwest Division and Western Conference environment, the Avs are clinging to a playoff spot by a single point. The loss of Ryan Smyth will surely help the likes of Anaheim, Columbus, and St. Louis, who are all chasing the Avs.
Without a lot of top prospects in the minors, one wonders if GM Francois Giguere will be ready to make a deal or two. While Giguere stated that he expected other Avs forwards to step up during Sakic's absence, it'll be hard to fill in the gaps left by missing TWO of the team's best offensive forwards. No other player can bring Smyth's level of strength and tenacity in the trenches, save for Andrew Brunette, a Ryan Smyth-lite. If I look at the Avs now, I see a team that is liable to lose a lot of physical battles in the offensive zone.
Hopefully, the injury isn't so severe that it could mean the hastened end to Joe Sakic's illustrious career in the NHL. It's certainly not easy to recovery from a painful hernia, and Sakic is at that age where each passing month is a fight against father time to maintain a high level of physical ability.
"Joe's rehabilitation has not progressed as anticipated and upon further evaluation the decision has been made to perform surgery in order for him to fully recover," Avalanche team physician Andrew Parker said.
If Sakic misses the length of time prescribed, it will be the longest absence of his NHL career. Prior to the injury, which has kept him out 12 straight games, Sakic had played in 232 consecutive games.
Sakic was struggling somewhat this season putting just 22 points in 24 games (with a gross -6) and looking rather 'tired', and now we know why.
Amazingly, the Avalanche have gone 8-4-1 since their captain has been out of the lineup, as some of the other forwards have picked up the slack. Of course, this short-term trend is unlikely to continue, and the Avs could find themselves fighting for their playoff lives by the time Sakic gets back.
While I realize the Avs have some pretty good offensive depth in their lineup, Sakic is one of those rare players that makes others better. Guys like Andrew Brunette, Marek Svatos, and Ryan Smyth need Sakic to feed them the puck to be fully effective. In the long run, the loss of Sakic is likely going to create a huge ripple effect in the Western Conference and Northwest Division.
It appears that the Red Wings have suffered a big blow to their chances against the Anaheim Ducks. Stalwart defenseman Mathieu Schneider apparently suffered a broken wrist in Game Five vs. the San Jose Sharks, and will not be available in the 3rd round series.
Red Wings defenseman Mathieu Schneider broke his wrist in the first period of Detroit's Game 5 victory over San Jose on Saturday in the Western Conference semifinals, knocking him out of the remainder of the playoffs.
Schneider, who scored the overtime goal in San Jose on Wednesday night that evened the series at 2, was hurt when checked by Sharks captain Patrick Marleau.
"He's a big part of our game. He's a top-four defenseman who plays a lot of minutes," Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom said. "He's a big part of our power play, so yeah, he'll be missed."
While the Wings have good depth on the blueline, Schneider's offence (52 points in 68 games this season) will be impossible to replicate.
As my AOL colleague James Mirtle notes, the Wings were forced to use forward Mikael Samuelsson on the point during Power Plays, as well as the ancient Chris Chelios. The Wings best hope in the series was to take advantage of the man advantages the Ducks were bound to give them. Without Schneider blasting bombs from the point, it's going to be hard for the Wings to have an effective Power Play unit.
Schneider plays almost 24 minutes of night, and his time will have to be distributed to poorer defensemen such as Brett Lebda and Kyle Quincey. Given the physicality of the Ducks' forwards, the Wings will be at a real disadvantage when these two youngsters are facing some immense pressure.
This will be a good test for Detroit's superior depth on D. Who knows? Maybe they can pull it together.
As if Rick DiPietro didn't have enough problems trying to think straight after suffering two successive concussions, the prodigy with the 15-year contract is now recovering from major hip surgery.
Rick DiPietro had hip surgery this week, and the New York Islanders goalie is expected to be fully recovered in time for training camp in September.
DiPietro, sidelined by two concussions 12 days apart late in the regular season and the start of the playoffs, had arthroscopic surgery Monday in Vail, Colo., to repair a tear in his left hip.
Any time you sign a player to a long-term contract, a major injury is a big worry. When that player is your #1 goalie and you signed him to the most insane deal ever, you have to hope this hip problem doesn't become a constant thorn in Ricky's side. Hip problems doesn't always just go away, as any senior citizen will tell you.
DiPietro truly established himself as a premier net-minder this season, after struggling to find his groove after being rushed by the Islanders earlier in his career.
After putting up a pedestrian 90.0SV% in 2005-06, DiPietro improved that number drastically this season to a 91.9% figure, 6th best in the entire NHL. Consider that he was playing behind a rather poor defense, and Ricky has to be considered one of the more underrated (but not under-compensated) players in the league.
Holmstrom, like so many NHLers, suffered an eye injury due to his utter refusal to wear a VISOR. Yes, Holmstrom could have lost vision in one eye thanks to the lack of protection in that region of his body.
Holmstrom has been out since April 22, when Calgary's Craig Conroy hit him with his stick in Detroit's series-winning victory over the Flames. The left wing had 30 goals and 22 assists during the regular season, but missed the first three games against the Sharks.
Holmstrom lost vision in the eye on the night of the incident, and his sight remained cloudy for a few days while team doctors evaluated him. He wasn't allowed to skate or work out because the doctors feared the increased blood flow could cause further damage.
"Of course I was scared," said Holmstrom, who had just one assist in six games against Calgary. "They didn't know how badly injured the eye was. They didn't want to get the blood going and hurt the eye."
Although Holmstrom had just one lone assist in the series against Calgary, his big Swedish booty causes major problems for opposing goaltenders and defenders alike.
The Wings are just 1-for-10 on the Power Play against the Sharks, and don't have anyone else nearly as effective as Holmstrom at creating havoc.
Bertuzzi? He's now a finesse forward, apparently ... Evgeni Nabokov can expect some blocked vision in the hours to come.
Some bad news for Leafs fans as captain Mats Sundin may require surgery on his hip. Apparently, this is the same type of injury that put a huge damper on Alexander Mogilny's career ...
According to a report out of the Toronto Sun, sources in the medical community have told the newspaper Sundin requires immediate hip surgery. If the report is accurate, it would complicate his yet-to-be resolved contractual status with the team.
If this news is true, then it makes the decision to retain Mats Sundin a bit harder.
Three things you can generally count on with Mats Sundin:
He'll play almost every game, every season. He rarely suffers a major injury.
He'll average about a point-a-game.
He'll give you great 2-way play and fight throw all of the obstacles thrown his way.
If Mats' hip wasn't a problem, then I don't understand how the Leafs could do anything but sign the guy to an extension on his current deal. Why pay big bucks to see if a guy like Todd Bertuzzi or Keith Tkachuk 'might' provide more offense? They likely won't, while Sundin provides a sure-fire return to any team who has him.
Even Canucks coach Alain Vigneault couldn't keep a straight face Saturday when he tried his flu-bug defence in describing the implausible number of injuries which have left his blueline in tatters.
There is something very serious going around, but it's not the flu.
Kevin Bieksa - It's now believed that he is suffering an upper rib or shoulder injury, and not a real flu as was thought before.
Sami Salo - Suffered a back/tailbone injury after a slew foot from the Stars' Ladislav Nagy. Yep, he's got "the flu".
Rory Fitzpatrick - The latest victim of this mysterious 'flu', who will miss Game Three. The true cause of his injury is not quite known, but I doubt he's popping NyQuil and drinking a bucket of chicken soup right about now.
First had had Upper and Lower Body Injuries, and now we have The Flu? This is getting really quite silly. I know hockey is war and war requires subterfuge, but how much worse can these descriptions get? "Overtime Induced Fatigue"?
With their blue line ravaged, the Canucks had to call up defensively-challenged Yannick Tremblay. His unofficial nickname is The Turnstile ... This isn't good news :(
When the Dallas Stars spent BIG (Mike Smith and forwards Jussi Jokinen and Jeff Halpern and a 4th round draft pick in 2009) to acquire Brad Richards from the Tampa Bay Lightning, it was seen as the final offensive piece needed to put the Dallas Stars over the hump.
Just 10 months ago, Rick '15 Years!' DiPietro, the 'savior' goaltender of the New York Islanders franchise, 
As if Oilers fans weren't depressed enough about how badly the Dustin Penner signing has turned out, or 
As if two straight losses against the lowly Phoenix Coyotes wasn't bad enough for the Colorado Avalanche, the Rocky Mountain club will now be without power winger Ryan Smyth, 
Joe Sakic and the Colorado Avalanche got some very bad news yesterday 
It appears that the Red Wings have suffered a big blow to their chances against the Anaheim Ducks. Stalwart defenseman Mathieu Schneider apparently 
As if Rick DiPietro didn't have enough problems trying to think straight after suffering two successive concussions, the prodigy with the 15-year contract is 
Some good news for Wings fans as Tomas Holmstrom, who has missed the first three games of the Sharks/Wings series, 
Some bad news for Leafs fans as captain 
Common symptoms of The Flu include headaches, fatigue, stomach discomfort, runny noses, coughing, and loss of appetite.
