Which news do you want first, the good or the bad?
Well the bad news is obvious. Dallas Stars forward Tyler Seguin suffered a cut to his Achilles tendon at the very end of Thursday’s night’s win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, when Anton Stralman’s skate got behind his tendon guard and raked over the back of his right leg.
According to general manager Jim Nill, the cut went about 15 percent of the way through the tendon and was surgically repaired this morning in a minor operation. The timetable for his return is 3-4 weeks.
The good news is this could have been so much worse.
Following the infamous stomp from Matt Cooke, Ottawa Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson missed three months with a 70 percent cut to his Achilles. And full ruptures are obviously extremely bad news.
Here is a good story on the Achilles and injuries to it that was written at the time of the Karlsson injury. The takeaway paragraph:
That said, regardless of the location of the injury, once fully healed Karlsson’s Achilles tendon should be strong enough not to significantly impact his skating speed or lower leg strength.
Three weeks from today is April 8, the day before the end of the regular season. The playoffs start about 4-5 days later (usually on a Wednesday), and four full weeks would put the Stars at Game 2 of a first round series or so. Assuming he doesn’t try and come back earlier, that will be 10 regular season games missed (or the same as he missed with the MCL sprain last season).
The injury certainly doesn’t help the Stars in their quest for the best playoff seeding. But like the injury to Jason Demers, it’s just one of those things the team is going to have to fight through. They could be in such a worse position to deal with it, especially with the recent return of Patrick Sharp to the lineup.