NHL Nhl Injuries

There once was a time when an NHL season could be recalled by one major, frightening on-ice incident. Now it seems there is one a week. The new scenes are etched in a hockey fan's mind like a movie buff citing favorite acts of violence directed by Coppola, Scorcese or Tarantino.

While the NHL still tries to figure out a way to handle hits to the head, they are also trying to curb other dangerous hits plaguing the game.

Saturday night, we saw this kind of hit in Montreal. Georges Laraque took out the knee of Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall. Despite pleading innocence and claiming it was an accident, Laraque was suspended five games on Monday.

SAN JOSE -- As many as one in five NHL players is injured, according to widely repeated estimates, but the athletes themselves would like to see how that breaks down, exactly. It's the names of the players who are out, rather than the body count, that is creating headlines, some say.

"Everyone usually has two or three guys out," Sharks center Joe Thornton said. "That's not unusual. I just kind of pay attention to who's out on our team, and we've got Rob Blake out, an All-Star, and Devin Setoguchi and Joe Pavelski were out. Teams just learn to adjust."

"It seems to be a lot of the top guys who are out," Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle said, referencing injured players like Alexander Ovechkin (pictured) and Evgeni Malkin. "It's not good for anyone to have those guys out, because people are paying a lot of money to come to the games and they want to see those guys play, but it's just a fluke. I don't think there's anything else to it."

The NHL can be a league of brutality, of fierce grudges played out inside the boards. But one of the game's most endearing qualities is the sportsmanship demonstrated when the final buzzer sounds. There is, of course, the traditional handshake after playoff series. Then there are the moments you don't hear much about.

David Morehouse (pictured right) arrived safely at home on Thursday morning. The 48-year-old president of the Pittsburgh Penguins had emergency endovascular stent surgery on Sunday in California to repair a blocked artery. But there is a lot more to this story.

The Atlanta Thrashers have played six games without star and team captain Ilya Kovalchuk. Any reports of their demise were greatly exaggerated, as they have gone 3-3 since Kovalchuk was lost to a broken foot.

Initial reports had Kovalchuk missing four to six weeks, but he practiced Tuesday, and there is confidence that he will return to action Thursday.

When Cam Ward went down with a grisly injury on Saturday night a bad season got much, much worse for the Carolina Hurricanes. Their star netminder got cut by a skate early in the first period and had to be taken to the hospital. As of Sunday night Ward was still in a Columbus hospital and the team expects that he will miss at least 3-4 weeks.

With the goaltending duties left to former sixth round pick and journeyman backup Michael Leighton, GM Jim Rutherford moved quickly to get some goaltending help. For now, that help comes in the form of 36-year-old veteran Manny Legace.

Not only did the Detroit Red Wings suffer a 5-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night, ending a three-game winning streak, they also lost yet another forward when offseason acquisition Jason Williams slid awkwardly into the end boards and fractured his right fibula.

According to head coach Mike Babcock, he could be out for as long as eight weeks, joining forwards Johan Franzen and Valtteri Filppula who are also out of the lineup with injuries.

When it rains, it pours.

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Scary moment in Columbus on Saturday night as Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Cam Ward had to leave the game early in the first period and be taken to a hospital after receiving cut on his leg following a collision with the skate blade of Blue Jackets forward Rick Nash.

Ward was down for quite a while, and as he slowly made his way to the bench blood could be seen on the ice. Video after the jump (and it's not as graphic as you might think. It's hard to even see what happened).

Don't blame the Calgary Flames for swiping swine flu shots for their players, coaches, staff members and their families. Blame the culture of celebrity. Since most hockey players are big stars north of the border, blame Canada. Blame Alberta Health Services, the agency responsible.

But don't get all high and mighty about the Flames getting vaccinated while thousands of Alberta residents waited all day or were turned away at clinics throughout the province. The hockey team did not ask for preferential treatment. They only asked for treatment. Why a squad from Alberta Health provided the Flames with their own clinic is something the agency will have to explain. One suggestion for the investigators: start with the team's head physician. Those docs tend to be deeply connected.

After leaving Sunday's overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets with an upper body injury, the Washington Capitals announced on Monday that Alex Ovechkin will be out of the lineup on a week-to-week basis with an upper body strain.

It goes without saying that it's a huge blow to the Capitals offense, as he's leading the league in goals (again) and points. Prior to this injury, he missed only four games in his NHL career, three of them coming a year ago.