The Two-Line Pass

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Ales Hemsky is likely the least-healthy non-Rick DiPietro in the league today, having played just 559 NHL games despite having been on the Oilers’ gameday roster since he was 19, in 2002-03. Nine seasons, 559 games. A little more than 62 a year if my math’s right, and it is, because I used a calculator.

The reason this history of being as brittle-boned as a particularly weak baby bird is important is not because Hemsky, might actually be able to play a full season when this one is shortened (not that I’d count on that), but rather because like most European-born NHLers, he’s looking for a deal to return to his home country and get regular paychecks while all this whatever-it-is gets sorted out Stateside. Instead, it’s important because it is part of a consideration might prevent him and others from signing overseas.

Two things are important to note first: One, there’s a team in Hemsky’s hometown in the Czech Republic, and his dad is its general manager, so it seems very likely that he’ll pull a contract out of it, but others might not be so lucky.

“I don’t think there will be a lot of open jobs,” Hemsky told QMI. “The KHL is only taking a few guys, Sweden isn’t taking anybody. The Czechs will just take Czech guys, and maybe a few others, because they don’t have the money for the insurance.”

Oooo, that last part. How much does it cost to insure Hemsky, you might be wondering? How about $25,000 per month? And that’s not even life insurance! That’s “Oh hell Hemsky’s shoulder fell off again” insurance. Granted, that’s not much considering what he’s earned in his career, or what his upcoming two-year, $10 million contract will pay him, but 25 grand? Gee whiz.

This is a very common thing: If NHLers, whether they’re typically ultra-durable or injury-prone, go overseas, they need to be covered by an insurance policy. Most teams provide them, but some don’t. Already, as many several dozen NHL agents, on behalf of the players they represent, have sought quotes on this kind of coverage. Basil McRae — yeah, what? — alone has advised between 50 and 100 NHL players on the matter. The kind of cost involved might lead a lot of players to just stay the hell home and work out with their buddies or something.

As for whether that kind of insurance covers having your being kidnapped in Magnitogorsk or the bail money needed when your KHL team plants drugs on you, I don’t know.

But this might be just what Hemsky needs. He played in 47 of Paradubice’s 52 games during the last lockout, and that’s only like 10 percent of the season missed, compared with his usual almost-20. So playing overseas might actually be an improvement.

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“Out indefinitely.”

First it was Erik Johnson getting his season ended by a golf cart. Soon after it was Manny Legace and Ben Bishop. Now TJ Oshie has gone down with a high ankle sprain.

“I was talking to Dr. (Rick) Wright and he told me as far as sports go, ankles are the toughest injuries to put a time frame on,” Blues President John Davidson said Sunday. “We don’t know how long it’s going to be. It’s just a shame because he’s been as good as anybody on our team.”

Great. Now St. Louis can call up.. nobody. Prepetual healthy scratch Yan Stastny will be filling in for Oshie.

Yan. Not Peter. The bad Stastny. Yan. The one who played for like three different organizations in the last four seasons. Yan. Not the guy on the Avalanche. No, his brother. His brother’s name is Yan. The one with nine career points. Yan Stastny.  The one that got traded to Boston for Sergei Samsonov with Marty Reasoner and the pick that became Milan Lucic. Yeah, that Stastny. Yan. So that’s two more words: “Yan Stastny.”

Other exciting Blues news in that link: They might sign Brendan Shanahan, but they might not.

(Just so you guys are clear on this from the outset, you should take “lower body” to mean “groin” for the rest of this post.)

Marian Gaborik is injured again and will miss tonight’s game. (Of course, because I was considering watching the Wild game tonight and they’d prefer that I had no reason to do so.) This time, it’s an unspecified “LOWER BODY” injury.

I don’t know when Gaborik hurt his “lower body” because he was certainly playing soccer hackysack/volleyball for about 45 minutes yesterday with Andrew Brunette, Mikko Koivu, Antti Miettinen and Eric Belanger. He did have his right upper thigh/groin area wrapped with ice after the game in Atlanta when he was interviewed by me, but that’s not abnormal with Gaborik, who gets iced down after every game due to his history of groin, hip and other leg ailments.

Minnesota’s already off and running this year. Gaborik’s the fourth player to get an injury of some variety since the start of the season. Doesn’t help that the team sucks even with him. Without him, their No. 1 scoring threat, with both Gabby and PM Bouchard out, is Eric Belanger. Mhmm. Belanger.

The immediate speculation, of course, was that Gaborik had been traded. But Wild fans won’t have to worry about that for long. With Gaborik’s LOWER BODY constantly injured, no one’s going to want him, and, if they actually do, they wouldn’t be willing to trade anything like fair value for him, and thus Minnesota would be disinclined to accept any such proposals.

So Gabby stays in Minnesota for another little while here until they can prove that LOWER BODY is 100 percent trade-ready, healthwise. Enjoy the press box popcorn.

Last night Chuck Kobasew took a puck in the ankle in the second period but finished the game and even set up David Krejci’s game-winner. As with many ankle injuries in hockey, it wasn’t a problem until he removed his skate.

But according to the great Kevin Paul Dupont, he’s in a walking cast today and getting an x-ray. He may have fractured it and could miss tomorrow night’s game. He missed 11 games last year and 32 the year before.

The team is considering putting Andrew Alberts at the wing for tomorrow night’s game against Minnesota. That’s just what Boston, the team that had the third-most games lost to injury last year, needs.

You’re probably going to hear a lot tomorrow about the hit Detroit’s Tomas Kopecky laid on Montreal defenseman Mathieu Carle (not to be confused with Tampa’s Matt Carle, though they play the same position. Someone pass that info to the Detroit color commentator).

Just five minutes into the Habs’ exhibition game, Carle carried the puck through the neutral zone down the right wing, dumped the puck in and less than a second later got demolished by a totally clean hit from Kopecky that he never saw coming. He was knocked unconcious and came back around about 15 minutes later while they were still working on him on the ice. He was taken off on a stretcher and brought to a Detroit hospital for further testing.

Watch the video for yourselves.

Some (namely Habs fans) will find the hit to be egregiously dirty. Others (namely objective observers who understand the sport) will say that it was perfectly clean, and that’s why players are taught to keep their friggin’ heads up in the neutral zone.

Anything that’s made of this is a total non-story. Even if the term “headhunting” is thrown around, it’s crazy talk. Don’t wanna get drilled, don’t put your head down. It’s that simple. Really.

Later in the game, Nicklas Lidstrom took a puck in the face and was also brought to the hospital. Yeesh. That could be bad, bad news for Detroit.

It seems Peter Forsberg’s Ironman streak is in serious trouble.

Reports indicate doctors have told the veteran centre his injured right foot will require months of rehabilitation to get back on the ice. The Swedish star, who rejoined the Colorado Avalanche late last season, has begun the rehabilitation program but says he will be out of action until Christmas.

The 35-year-old Forsberg, who has been decimated by injuries in recent years, would like to play again this season. But Swedish newspaper Expressen is reporting that Forsberg has a muscle problem in his right foot, which has caused much of his injury troubles.

Yeah, no one saw that coming. I blame those stupid Crocs he’s always wearing.

Think about it. He began importing and promoting the shoes in Sweden around 2004. That year, he played just 39 games. In the three seasons after 2004, he has played in just 126 of a possible 246 regular season games.

The moral here: Crocs not only look stupid, but they derail what could have been one of the best hockey careers ever.

Bewaaaaaaaaaaaare