Cam Ward and Jason Williams Bit by Injury Plague

Cam Ward, of the Carolina Hurricanes, is out indefinitely after Rick Nash's skate lacerated his leg
Cam Ward, of the Carolina Hurricanes, is out indefinitely after Rick Nash's skate lacerated his leg

Despite all of the great hockey we have seen in the 2009-10 NHL season so far, one tremendous downfall continues to plague the league. This season, some of the NHL’s most notable stars have been injured, along with dozens of role players as well. In addition to the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Johan Franzen, Daniel Sedin, Simon Gagne, Marc Savard, Sergei Gonchar, and Valtteri Filppula, two more players have now been sidelined with injuries.

First we have Cam Ward of the Carolina Hurricanes. While Ward is having a sub-par start to his season, his career numbers are good. He helped lead the Hurricanes to the Eastern Conference Finals last season where they were swept by the Pittsburgh Penguins. In 2005-06, Ward lead the team to a Stanley Cup Championship in a 7-game series over the Edmonton Oilers. He went on to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs as well.

Against Columbus, last night, Cam Ward’s leg was lacerated by the skate of Blue Jacket Rick Nash. Ward left the game and was taken to the hospital. He remained in the hospital Saturday night, and did not make the flight home with his teammates. There is no timetable for his return, so Carolina will be forced to give Michael Leighton the starts in net. Beyond that, they will either have to call up a goalie from their minor league system, or begin to look at possible trade options to provide added depth.

Just as things we’re beginning to look up for the Detroit Red Wings, winning three straight, they took another huge hit. In the second period of last nights game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Jason Williams suffered a fractured fibula when he lost his balance and fell wrong on the ice. This injury will put Williams out for at least two months. Detroit is already without forwards Valtteri Filppula and Johan Franzen, and another injury obviously hurts the team.

Injuries in Detroit will give players such as Darren Helm, Justin Abdelkader, Patrick Eaves and Ville Leino a great chance to step up and show what they’ve got. The young players bring a tremendous amount of speed and energy to the team, but they have yet to show much on the scoreboard this season. Leino, for example, was considered by many to be in the running for Rookie of the Year honors after netting five goals and four assists in thirteen games when he was called up last season from Grand Rapids.  In fourteen games this season, however, he has two goals and one assist with a minus four rating. If we are to see any more success in Detroit this November, these energy players must begin to produce.

10 Comments

  1. Matt- two things well said- Williams’ injury is another
    “huge hit” to Wings. And if we are to see any success
    for Wings in November (and beyound, actually) the “energy players must begin to produce”.

    Can anyone recall such a spate of injuries as the Wings
    have seen in the last few weeks? Ouch……….

    Just as an aside….no posts from EB lately…..slacking???

  2. Thanks Tony.

    It has been a while since they’ve had to battle through anything quite like this. Should definitely be interesting to see how well they play these next few months with all the injuries adding up.

    EB must be slacking, thanks for bringing that to my attention haha. Nah, he’s a busy guy. We’ll see something out of him soon.

  3. To hitchhike on Matts thoughts (re:injuries)……this is assuming that thate there won’t be any MORE injuries-
    it’s still early in November!!!!

    As for EB….I’m sure he will contribute a post about some
    Coyote related news soon, too.

  4. Forget the Wings! The Bruins are missing their entire frontline from last season (Savvy, Cheech, and Kessel), as well as their interim starting center (Krejci).

    I include Kessel, of course, because if were still with the B’s, then he’d most likely be out with tonsilitis or something immature like that.

  5. Wings stepped it up tonight, or did Columbus fall flat on their faces? Not to mention, the bounces were definately going the Wings way. That happens and there’s nothing the other team can do. Regardless it was nice to see the offensive punch. Might get some guys going. While the shoot-out in DC went, I think, 12 rounds, with only 3 goals. Tony A. was up in two more rounds.

  6. G. Brown- not sure what you mean. Shoot out in DC?
    Tony A. up in two more rounds?

    Anyway- as you say- the offensive explosion was nice to see and I heard that same thought echoed- that it might jump start some of the guys. We’ll see soon enough- at home against Canucks. Let’s see if Wings are
    like another Ilitch owned team- the Tigers who score 12 runs in agame and then get shut out on 4 singles the next night. Hope not.

    EB is in a posting dry spell………

  7. New post up, and not about the Coyotes.

    @Tony: Last night the Caps went into a shootout, 12 guys deep on each team. I believe George was saying a few more guys and they were calling you from the stands to take a turn.

    Wings picked up Drew Miller for some depth. Not a stud like his brother Ryan, nonetheless he should contribute some depth and a body to give our top lines some rest. It will be interesting to see how he plays, or if he produces. The Wings tend to turn nobodies into somebodies. At 25 years old, let’s hope they get Drew going.

  8. I still don’t understand the DC shootout situation-
    I thought you only sent three shooters out and if still tied then so be it. Am I a dumb ass or what?

  9. I would not have used such wording, but you use as many shooters as it takes for a team to win. So in the case of Washington, they went like 12 guys deep per team. I wonder what the ruling is if you used all your players?

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