Bolts Captain Taylor Opts for Potentially Career-Ending Hip Surgery

Entering his 14th NHL season, Tim Taylor was already talking with Tampa Bay Lightning team management at the end of last season about life after hanging-up-the-skates. His decision this week will likely hasten that fate. The Bolts captain was scheduled to go under the knife today for hip surgery; a procedure in which "the ball joint of the hip and the hip socket will be shaved down and replaced with cobalt chrome to prevent bone-on-bone hip rotation," according to The Tampa Tribune:

He has a grueling five-month rehabilitation process to look forward to once he gets back on his feet in a couple of weeks. Not to mention that no athlete has undergone this type of procedure and returned to a contact sport. It's not that it can't be done, just that it hasn't been.Taylor would like to be the first, but he has no intention of rushing into anything.

Obviously, Tribune writer Erik Erlendsson needs to respect the player by respecting the extremely long odds that he could return to the ice, but it doesn't take an arthroscope to read between the lines: Taylor is done. He's a fourth-line center on the depth chart whose job can be cycled to a kid in training camp, and he was already in statistic decline last season. Taylor's taking the right approach: Have the surgery for a healthy life after hockey rather than to extend his life on the ice. He's got his name on the Stanley Cup twice (1997, 2004) and clearly earned the respect of his teammates as both a de facto and official captain. Walk away, Cap, with your head high.

So who will wear the 'C' for the Bolts this season? Brad Richards was nearly the choice before coach John Tortorella balked at having a young captain on a team in transition, naming the veteran Taylor instead. But according to an earlier blog by Erlendsson, Taylor will rehab in Tampa and "will remain as team captain and likely will be visible around the locker room this season." Seriously?