Jordan Staal Suffers Setback
Quinn Mell-Cobb on Mon, 2010-11-01 19:13
Jordan Staal's return to the Pittsburgh Penguins will have to wait for the forseeable future, after he was hit with an errant puck at practice this morning, breaking a bone in his hand.
After initially severing a tendon in his foot against Montreal in Game 1 of the Conference Semi-Finals last year, Staal was unable to work out during the summer or suit up in any games once the season got underway due to a nagging infection in the same injured foot. After a lengthy rehabilitation, Staal was finally slated to rejoin the lineup on Wednesday night against the Dallas Stars, before the untimely incident at practice. Penguins Coach Dan Bylsma noted Staal was understandably distraught about his seemingly endless streak of poor luck:
"It's disappointing on a couple levels, but mostly it's personal for Jordan, because he's had a difficult off-season and training camp. And then to get to the point where you're looking to coming back to play and possibly having to deal with another injury is disappointing."
Bylsma later confirmed that the injury would indeed require surgery to repair, a procedure which Staal will undergo on Tuesday. The recovery time for the damage to heal is approximately six weeks.
Before this unfathomable series of recent injuries, Staal was ironically among the National Hockey League's most durable players, missing only one game (regular season and playoffs combined) during his career.
2 Comments
Jesus Christ... poor guy. It was supposed to be a huge breakout year for him and he was supposed to be a big part of the pens. This can only hurt their chances.