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***Price Concussed*** Weber Done For The Year + Gameday Vs. NYR

February 22, 2018, 2:55 PM ET [351 Comments]
Brandon Smillie
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
***Update: Carey Price is reportedly out indefinitely with a concussion. This is the latest injury in a nightmare season for the Canadiens. With Price out I would presume Niemi and Lindgren will split the share of starts with the intentions of dealing Niemi at the deadline. Don’t be surprised if any subsequent Habs moves have them picking up a teams 3rd stringer just in case Niemi is dealt.***


I’m not sure if any of you have heard yet but Shea Weber’s season is over.

Your sarcasm detector should have gone off right there BTW.

The Canadiens best player, when he was able to play, was officially shut down today for the season after the Montreal Canadiens announced he would miss the remainder of the season to recoup from surgery to repair a torn tendon in his foot.

The reaction from people online has folks looking pretty upset that the team leader will be done for the season. I ask: Why?

This season is gone. It was gone shortly before Christmas. This news just means that a pretty tough S.O.B. in Weber will have received almost an entire seasons worth of rest on his war torn body. Weber is one of the most competitive and one of the toughest players in the NHL. Weber was playing through an injury that ended up requiring surgery, can you imagine the pain that must have come with every training session and game? Especially after the medications worn off? Now remember how good he was playing despite that?! The Habs have one of the NHL’s best, it’s unfortunate half the fanbase refuse to acknowledge that.

#WeberDeniers




Another sentiment being repeated is how the Canadiens medical staff are so inept at their jobs that they allowed Weber to play through the injury, with some saying they did the same thing to Price.

Well, I won’t claim to have been a fly on the wall in the medical evaluations and testing with either player, but we do know that players play through small ligament tears all the time with pain medications. It is a risk, but Dr’s know the degree to which such a tear would require surgery or simply time to heal.

What I also know is that if the degree of injury isn’t enough for the doctor to shut a player down, then the player can decide if they are good to go. They test out the pain meds while in practice and possibly a game. If the injury doesn’t worsen and the player doesn’t shut himself down then they player will simply be monitored closely.

I think that’s what happened in the case of Weber, and probably Price back when he hurt his knee and tried to tough it out. Players are proud. Players are tough, or at least want to be. We all know there are some players that will shut it down for a bruise and some that will play with a broken leg/foot/hand. Some people’s pain tolerance is higher than others and some people don’t want to stop playing. Do you think Shea Weber is going to shrink away from the game? Neither do I.

Here is a quote from the above tweet that leads me to believe this was the case:

˝Following the diagnosis of Shea Weber's injury, it was our belief that after a comprehensive rehabilitation protocol under the guidance of our medical team, Shea would be able to return to play this season. Unfortunately, after extensive efforts to heal Shea's injury, progress has not been made as expected. After further exams, and a consultation on Wednesday in Green Bay, Wisconsin with specialist Dr. Robert Anderson, and with Shea's approval, it has been determined that he should undergo surgery and will be out for the reminder of the season. Our medical group will work with Shea to ensure he is pursuing the best course of treatment moving forward, and we expect him to make a full recovery and be ready for the start of training camp next season. The length of his recovery will be determined following surgery, which will be performed by Dr. Anderson,'' said the Club's orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Paul Martineau.”

Perhaps Weber battled as long as he could until the pain became unbearable or hampered his own standard of performance severely. Maybe Weber saw the rash of injuries spread across the team and thought “Well, I have to push through for the team”, even though he was the one injured in the beginning. The part about seeking another specialists opinion in the USA plus “Shea’s approval” really leads me to believe Weber was doing everything he could to avoid surgery.

It’s a blessing and a curse of being a great leader in hockey.




Rumors from hockey media types sounded pretty confident Weber had a broken foot, now I don’t know if that was the case, but I do know that swelling from a fracture or injury could tear a ligament. I do recall there was a quote out there around the time he went off for good from someone in the Canadiens that Weber’s injury wasn’t healing as well as they hoped (sorry, not searching for it). This now makes total sense with the details of the injury now known. The ligament appears to not have responded the way the players and doctors hoped so they opted to stop waiting for nature to do the job and let the surgeons do it.

That’s a great call at this point. Could it have been made sooner? Maybe, but maybe Weber opted to wait before allowing his foot to be cut open? Could have been out of the medical staff’s control until they kept showing Weber that his foot wasn’t healing very quickly and that surgery would have him ready to go next fall.

Bottom line is there are a great many fan and media pundit alike that want to throw the Canadiens organization under as many buses as they can right now because that makes them feel better about their likes and shares on the internet. Unfortunately most of these folks lack big picture focus and empathetic thought to see a situation may be affected by many different factors. It’s something that I think we could all practice a little more, not just related to hockey injuries, but our everyday dealings in life.

Also, Habs play the Rangers tonight in a Battle of the Sellers. The Canadiens may be losing a lot but they have been pretty entertaining lately. I’ll try to catch the game tonight on my laptop, but my house is in disarray after my sump pump ceased working two nights ago and I ended up with a couple inches of water in my basement (which is my families main living/entertainment space). My house is torn apart and a lot of my belongings aren’t accessible for the next week or so it’s pretty much the worst timing for me with the Trade Deadline coming up so I’ll try to get updates up quick.

Anyways, I’ve also read that some of the Rangers players aren’t liking the fall out from the letter management made to signal their rebuild. Could it be pulling the plug publicly with almost half a seasons worth of hockey left put a bad taste in the players mouth? Could it be the daily questions about trades and the rebuild are annoying to a player who did not make that decision or make it public? It really did make no sense to announce to the hockey world your intentions to dismantle. People would have assumed that anyways once you started making trades. Just a dumb distraction to place on a team from New York.

To think there are some who praised this decision by the NYR’s and threw the Habs under another bus for not doing the same. As if the media isn’t bad enough there, why not publicly say we are selling off with almost 40 games left and let the players deal with the disappointing season AND the public announcement that management has given up on its team. Yeah, that makes all kinds of sense. (By now your sarcasm meter should have broken).

Claims adjustor just arrived, gotta go.

Enjoy the game.

Go Habs Go!
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