by Mike Haim

It might sound like something from a pre-school television program, but our word of the week is “injuries.”

There’s always a pretty lengthy list of NHL players who are sidelined for some period of time, but it seems like the young season – just entering its second month – has been characterized by a spate of injured high-profile players.

In the season’s first game, the Montreal Canadiens lost their top defenseman, Andrei Markov, to a sliced ankle tendon.

A week later, Detroit’s Johan Franzen suffered a knee injury which will keep him out for about four months. Vancouver Canucks winger Daniel Sedin then broke a foot.

The following week, Marc Savard and Milan Lucic - two-thirds of the Boston Bruins’ top line - were shelved with a broken foot and broken right index finger, respectively. Pittsburgh’s Sergei Gonchar then went down with a broken wrist.

Early last week, two of the game’s second-tier superstars (but first-tier snipers) – Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk (broken foot) and Philadelphia’s Simon Gagne (hernia surgery) – went on the injured reserve list.

As if those two weren’t high-profile enough, two top-tier superstars bit the dust this past weekend. Defending MVP Alexander Ovechkin suffered an upper body injury and scoring champion Evgeni Malkin strained his right shoulder. Ovechkin could be back within a week, but Malkin is expected to miss at least a couple of weeks.

Add it all up, and it’s a pretty stellar cast of characters who aren’t playing.

Things like nagging groin problems could perhaps be attributed to weaknesses in a training regimen, and outbursts of flu symptoms are an annual occurrence in NHL dressing rooms. But stuff like sliced tendons and broken feet don’t happen all the time, which makes this current string of maladies a little mystifying.

Some optimists might say it’s better to get these kind of injuries out of the way early in the season, before playoff hunts (or Olympic games) get into full swing.

The reality, though, is that injuries will never go away and you can’t plan when they’ll happen. It’s merely a coincidence that, right now, they’re hampering players being we once thought were relatively invincible.

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Goaltenders are hardly a position exempt from injuries, but outside of Atlanta’s Kari Lehtonen (back surgery) and Anaheim’s Jean-Sebastien Giguere (groin), there haven’t been too many getting sidelined yet this season.

Equipment surely helps goalies prevent many injuries, but this week netminders at all levels are surely observing the 50th anniversary of the introduction of the goalie mask into the game.

On November 1, 1959, Jacques Plante of the Montreal Canadiens convinced his coach Toe Blake that his skill would not be compromised by a fiberglass mask. Plante went on to win his first 18 games wearing the new invention.

But the words spoken that night by Lorne “Gump” Worsley, the Rangers’ goalie, seem especially misguided today.

“Why, all of a sudden after hockey has been played for 70 years, do they decide we should wear masks?” said Worsley, who ended his NHL career in 1974 as the last goalie to play without facial protection. “Plante may make a pot full of money on that mask idea. He can have it. I don’t want the thing.”

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Finally, a hearty “Bravo” is in order for Ontario Hockey League commissioner David Branch, who suspended Michael Liambas of the Erie Otters for the entire season and any playoff games.

Last Friday, Liambas accelerated from the right faceoff circle and delivered a devastating behind-the-net hit to Ben Fanelli of the Kitchener Rangers. Fanelli’s helmet flew off, and he remains in hospital with skull and facial fractures after hitting a support post between panes of glass and falling head-first to the ice.

“Players must understand they shall be held accountable for their actions,” Branch said in a statement. “We must all work towards improving the level of respect players have towards opposing players and the game in general.”

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