Desperation defined: Simon Gagne skates at Thursday's practice
by Travis Hughes on May 6, 2010 12:56 PM EDT
in 2010 Playoffs
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Remember what we wrote the other day, about how you can't really hurt a broken toe too much more than it's already hurt? It seems that Simon Gagne and the Flyers medical staff feels the same way, because there he was this morning at practice, skating his little heart out.
The reports flooded in on Twitter from the Flyers, CSN, the Inquirer and the Daily News. Gagne. Skating. Two days before he was supposed to undergo and MRI that would have potentially cleared him to skate. According to the DN report, he was wearing a protective boot over his skate to avoid further injury.
So, can Gagne play in Game 4? We don't know, but you have to imagine that the answer is yes. The Flyers are on the brink of elimination, and there's no reason to push up Gagne's timetable without the idea that he'll be in the lineup come a do-or-die Game 4. It's still a stretch, but with David Krejci officially out for the season in Boston and Gagne hopefully back in for the Flyers come Friday night, it might be the swing the team needs to at least get the series back north.
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Wow
Desperation indeed. All hands on deck, as the saying goes.
"Tortorella’s got it all wrong ... Gaborik shouldn’t be messing with our skilled player." -Peter Luuko
This is why he is my favorite!
This literally made my day. I know there’s no certainty that he will play tomorrow but I can at least keep my hope of seeing him play at least once more this season. Let’s hope this helps the Flyers to get the series back to Boston.
I love the Lightning AND the Flyers... go ahead, preach me!
Is a 50% gagne for 7 minutes better than Jared Ross or Andreas Nodl?
by orangeandblack20 on May 6, 2010 2:04 PM EDT up reply actions
But I’ll bet it’s better then JVR. Amirite? :D
by StarbladeMKIII on May 6, 2010 2:10 PM EDT up reply actions
ROFL
Mario can’t say anything anymore without getting a JVR joke.
I do think we have to ask the question of what is good for the long term. Although it seems like Simon has been playing for the Flyers since the late 70’s, the reality is he’s still in his mid 30’s and he still has some good years ahead of him if he can continue to stay healthy. I played some of my best hockey around his age. The last thing we need is to have him rush back with a half hobbled foot and have something occur that screws him up for the rest of his career when we’re already 3 down. I’d personally rather that the coaching staff use this as a motivation to the team, to say - get us a win, so we can give Simon a chance to come back in this series. I think the team needs to win game 4 at home without him, especially considering the Bruins are now down 2 of their top 6 forwards. If they can’t win one at home under those conditions, then it’s just as well that we get swept.
But its good to hear some negativity from you, with stuff going so well recently you’ve been quiet.
I still believe.
by orangeandblack20 on May 6, 2010 2:05 PM EDT up reply actions
Hard to disagree.
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by Travis Hughes on May 6, 2010 1:41 PM EDT up reply actions
I guess the Bruins should have never dressed Savard for game 1 after his 3-4 month absence. Oh wait he did win them the game in OT nevermind.
Savard started skating on April 22 and returned to game action on May 1.
9 days does not equal 1 day.
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by Travis Hughes on May 6, 2010 2:17 PM EDT up reply actions
He also was only out for 2 months.
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by Cornelius Hardenbergh on May 6, 2010 5:27 PM EDT up reply actions
I agree. It’s desperation, and not the smartest move.
Score another one for the medical staff. Miracle workers, they are.
well, we are talking about a broken toe. …it’s not like he’s coming back from a concussion and scott stevens is on the opposite blue line.
Too soon?
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by HockeyOutsiders on May 6, 2010 3:26 PM EDT up reply actions
Except that hockey depends on all sorts of muscle and tendon fitness in the feet and ankles. I don’t know if you play hockey or not, but if you have, and you ever had a layoff, you would understand how important healthy feet are to the sport. Look at Forsberg— something wrong there, and you go from being one of the best in the history of the sport, to being a scrub overnight.
Ice skating uses muscles in the feet that can only be exercised by skating. There’s just no way to work those out other than to be on the ice, and to drill. Only Simon knows whether or not he’s had time to get back into skating shape so that he can contribute. I think it’s extremely unfair for the team to put him in a position where he probably has no choice but to give it a shot. Clearly the team is a different team with a healthy Simon, but a Simon that is only 80%? I would hope that under the circumstances the team would take the right stance on this, and make sure that he’s playing only if he feels he’s 100% ready, and that they would rather he be ready to go next season, than risk a reinjury on what is the hockey equivalent of a hail mary pass.
I’m a never say die type myself, and I do think you play the games for a reason, and anything CAN happen, but this is a team sport, and you have a team that could have won both of the first 2 games of this series, were the puck to have bounced a different way a couple of times. The team should be focused on getting a win with the players that they have who are healthy, and then looking at Simon coming back as previously scheduled. What if Simon comes back, we win, but he jacks up his foot so he’s out for the rest of the playoffs. Is there anyone who thinks that is a reasonable tradeoff? Those are the same type of people who probably think that Ian should play with a brain hemmoraghe.
Geez, I’d really rather he had a few practices, but there is no guarantee that he’ll play anyway. The thing nagging at me is the voice in the back of my head going “Was this at least partially Gagne’s own idea?”. I can’t rule out that he may have wanted to at least skate on it and see how it felt. I’m not saying that makes it right, only that I don’t know if this is the team pushing the issue or Gagne himself doing that.
I don’t want Gagne to get hurt even worse, so I really just want him to listen to his own body. If nothing else, the other guys seeing him push himself to come back for this game may get the team going tomorrow, even if he only sees 5 minutes. If we hope for anything positive out of it, we have to hope they see him put in that effort and use it to get focused. I’m scared, but I’ve gotta look for a silver lining somewhere.
How is he going to get hurt even worse from a broken bone that has pins in it?
The worst thing I can think of possibly happening is that the bone re-fractures because it hasn’t healed enough. In which case he might have a cast on his foot for 4-6 weeks. He’d still be healthy before the entry draft.
I’m not so much worried about the toe itself, as the possibility of getting a different injury from either overcompensating for the pain, being rusty and not moving well in general, getting targeted by the other team; anything along those lines.
by DragonGirl0583 on May 6, 2010 11:00 PM EDT up reply actions
Again… look at Peter Forsberg — what was suppossedly an insignificant issue with his ankle, leads to numerous groin pulls, playing on ankles that aren’t fully healed, leading to not feeling right, leading to weird ankle surgeries, leading too……..
forsberg has his feet attached to his legs by rubber bands and bubble gum… a bit different than a fractured toe.
by edesjardins37 on May 7, 2010 9:55 AM EDT up reply actions
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