Would the person who has the voodoo doll of the Dallas Stars forwards please put it down?
I mean, it was a little silly when every single forward the Stars sent to the World Cup of Hockey came back with some sort of injury, even more cringe-worthy when it was revealed Tyler Seguin had a more serious one. Then one day into camp Cody Eakin went down, followed by Devin Shore (and Travis Morin never got cleared to begin with). And it was revealed Jason Dickinson was recovering from offseason hip surgery.
For a few days it looked like the run had abated. Ales Hemsky, Shore, Morin and Dickinson started to skate, and Radek Faksa rejoined the lineup last night like he’d never left the NHL ice. But given how this run as gone so far, you knew bad news couldn’t be far behind.
That came in the form of the missing Mattias Janmark, who had been scheduled to play against the Colorado Avalanche but reportedly didn’t make the trip. He had skated Wednesday morning as the first-line center, so the sudden absence was startling. And the other shoe dropped on Thursday, when Lindy Ruff revealed it was indeed injury related, even if he wasn’t going to reveal details until Friday.
Then there was this:
An update on Janmark, he just walked by me on crutches.
— Mark Stepneski (@StarsInsideEdge) September 29, 2016
Well that’s just great.
The good news, as mentioned above, is most of the injured players other than Eakin and Dickinson (who was a long shot to make the NHL roster anyway) look like they should be ready for opening night. Faksa is clearly back in form, and Hemsky had a 7-10 day groin tweak. Seguin hasn’t started skating yet but is reportedly close. Even Shore’s injury could have been a lot worse.
So let’s hope this is simply precautionary with Janmark, who found some solid chemistry with Jason Spezza last season.
And whoever has that damn voodoo doll, enough already.