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2025-26 NHL Miscellaneous Thread

I had a guy (on my team) run head first into my sternum as I was skating the puck across center ice into the opponent's zone just as fast as I could move. He had his head down and was lunging for the puck (who knows WTF he was thinking?) when his helmet connected with my chest. It knocked both of us out of the game. I felt that one. It seperated the cartilage from my ribs and bruised my lungs. It felt like I slammed my lungs in a car door and I coughed for 3-4 minutes straight. Every cough felt like a jolt of electricity. I was out for 7 weeks and it was absolutely brutal every time I coughed, sneezed, laughed, or yawned. I had to sleep in the recliner because the torque getting in & out of bed made it very angry. He never came back, which was fine with me.

Jim
 
Not comparing myself to Gauthier in any shape or form, but…

In 2025 I got into a neutral ice collision with a beer league opponent and broke the T9 vertebrae in my back and didn’t know it. I played for at least another six weeks until the break was detected in an x-ray I had taken for an unrelated reason. By that point, the break was far along to healing and my chiropractor only had me take six weeks off before I was permitted to get back on the ice.

My point being that you can suffer bone breaks and not experience any pain. I shudder, however, at the thought of taking an NHL-level hit with any broken bones in your back (something I obviously didn’t experience in beer league!).
When I was playing pee wee football. I injured my knee and the Naval hospital diagnosed me with a knee sprain. I played the next week and never missed time. Fast forward 10 years as I getting my physical for my baseball scholarship….ummm did you know you have no ACL in your left knee?? What? Apparently I tore my acl way back when and it was never diagnosed. I played catcher in baseball all through college and soccer all year from age 9 to 18 with absolutely no ACL in my left knee. That’s why I giggle when these guys are out a year and I played my whole life without one😂
 
One would hope the days of the drunken slobs showing up by the thousands at PNC wouldn't be possible in 2026. And I'm not sure the Habs have anywhere near as large a presence in the Triangle.
 
You have to wonder how long McDavid stays in Edmonton. He has one more year under contract. They could restock with a load of draft picks and young talent if they traded him. He can't be happy there. If he says he is, he's putting up a facade. If I was him I'd run like a cat with its tail on fire. He could push several teams over the top to be an immediate contender.
As talented as he is, he’s part of the problem and has not been a part of any solution. Yesh he can do amazing things but if you could pick him or Sid you’d pick Sid 10 out of 10 times.
 
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