The Detroit Red Wings aren’t the only team seeing preseason injury trouble. You can now add the Carolina Hurricanes to that list after last night. The Hurricanes have lost center Jordan Staal indefinitely after he broke his leg in the third period of their preseason matchup against the Buffalo Sabres.
Oddly enough, Staal seemed to have forced the injury upon himself during the awkward play. After taking a hit from Sabres’ Josh Gorges on the play, Staal retaliated by trying to throw Gorges to the ice. Gorges and Staal became tangled on the way down, which resulted in an awkward fall for Stall, and one where he ultimately broke his leg.
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Gorges spoke to the Buffalo Hockey Beat after the game, and offered his thoughts and concerns:
The puck got moved up to him, I stepped in front of him to try to separate him from the play. We got kind of tangled up. He tried to grab around me to switch positions. Next thing I know, he falls. He must’ve gotten tangled up, and I went right over top of him.
It was one of those plays, where as soon as I landed on him, I heard him scream. I knew right away something must’ve hurt him. I mean, he’s a pretty tough guy. A guy like that doesn’t lay on the ice for nothing. I knew something was wrong right away. I was kind of on his back side. The ref came to me and told me it looked pretty ugly. It’s kind of one of those scary plays.
The Hurricanes were hoping for a stronger season from Staal, who was not at his best last season. Despite playing a full 82 games, Staal only managed 15 goals and 25 assists. He was not the only Hurricane, or the only Staal brother to struggle last season.
Staal will likely miss a solid chunk of games this season, but a time table on his return is still up in the air.
