So today Eric Staal took what looked like a dirty knee on knee hit from fellow NHLer Alexander Edler in Canada's game versus Sweden this afternoon. At this point, it is all speculation, but it did not look good. He was in severe pain and needed help from a couple teammates to make it off the ice.

It will be interesting to see if any kind of early report filters back through the organization to Chip Alexander at the Raleigh News & Observer by tomorrow.

This again calls into question participation in these tournaments. I am torn personally. I get the idea of playing for your country and helping out. But Eric Staal is under contract to play hockey for the Carolina Hurricanes next October at $8.25M for the season. For a high contact sport where injuries like this are a real possibility, I question whether the team that is paying a lot of money is better served by taking these risks versus conditioning, strength, skating, skill development, etc. kind of training in the offseason. I think the experience/development is worth the risk for young, developing players but not worth it for expensive, older franchise players like Staal.

At this point, all Canes fans can do is hope for the best in the next few days when details are reported.

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