It’s commonplace for hockey players to play hurt during the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Specifics on players’ injuries are often kept as hush-hush as possible (see: “lower-body” and “upper-body”) until after the post-season comes to an end or a team is eliminated.
On Thursday, the day after his team was knocked out of the playoffs by the Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland told reporters who was playing hurt.
The list included several players, including goalie Jimmy Howard, who, according to the Detroit Free Press, pulled a hamstring at the end of the first-round series win over the Anaheim Ducks.
“We had lots of players banged up,” Holland said, as per the Detroit Free Press.
“All teams do. It’s the playoffs. You’re playing every other night. Players are getting beat up every second night. It’s a lot of hockey.”
Other injured players included Daniel Cleary, Niklas Kronwall and Mikael Samuelsson.
Cleary was playing what was reported as a second-degree separation of his left shoulder and a fractured finger.
The most recent long-term injury of these playoffs for the Red Wings occurred early in Game 7 against the Blackhawks, when Valtteri Filppula suffered what the Detroit Free Press reported as a high-ankle sprain.
Click here to see exactly how Filppula was injured.
