As teams get eliminated from the playoffs, injuries that players were battling through inevitably come to light. Players shuffle off in a long line to their surgeons, physical therapists, and physicians to repair themselves before it all begins again in a couple months.
This is also a time that certain hockey fans – you know the breed – come out of the woodwork to laud these battered soldiers’ toughness and grit. They come equipped with memes comparing their hardy hockey heroes to those pansies on the soccer or basketball benches. Search the #PleaseLikeMySport hashtag on Twitter and you will find plenty of these fans, blissfully unaware that they are the butt of the joke.
I get it, hockey players are tough. You cannot make it to the NHL without being able to hold your own and play through the pain. That is not changing anytime soon, especially as …show more content…
My friend, a hockey player himself, spoke reverently about that grit – “That guy on the Dallas Stars [meaning Rich Peverley] literally died on the bench and came back like forty-five seconds later ready to take his next shift. Iconic.” Then my friend went off to play a game where he singlehandedly started and finished a line brawl, so perhaps he is not the best authority on the subject.
Though we are thankfully a few years removed from the horrific Peverley incident – if you’re unfamiliar, his heart stopped on the bench during a game and he collapsed, then paramedics immediately revived him and the game was postponed – there still has been some brutal injuries that players have brushed under the rug this year.
For example, “Jumbo” Joe Thornton of the San Jose Sharks played in the first round with a torn MCL and ACL. Thornton is 37 years old and 6'4", which means he is not going to heal up too rapidly. Head coach Peter DeBoer said that he was incredibly impressed by Thornton’s grit to keep
This is also a time that certain hockey fans – you know the breed – come out of the woodwork to laud these battered soldiers’ toughness and grit. They come equipped with memes comparing their hardy hockey heroes to those pansies on the soccer or basketball benches. Search the #PleaseLikeMySport hashtag on Twitter and you will find plenty of these fans, blissfully unaware that they are the butt of the joke.
I get it, hockey players are tough. You cannot make it to the NHL without being able to hold your own and play through the pain. That is not changing anytime soon, especially as …show more content…
My friend, a hockey player himself, spoke reverently about that grit – “That guy on the Dallas Stars [meaning Rich Peverley] literally died on the bench and came back like forty-five seconds later ready to take his next shift. Iconic.” Then my friend went off to play a game where he singlehandedly started and finished a line brawl, so perhaps he is not the best authority on the subject.
Though we are thankfully a few years removed from the horrific Peverley incident – if you’re unfamiliar, his heart stopped on the bench during a game and he collapsed, then paramedics immediately revived him and the game was postponed – there still has been some brutal injuries that players have brushed under the rug this year.
For example, “Jumbo” Joe Thornton of the San Jose Sharks played in the first round with a torn MCL and ACL. Thornton is 37 years old and 6'4", which means he is not going to heal up too rapidly. Head coach Peter DeBoer said that he was incredibly impressed by Thornton’s grit to keep