Kaprizov's latest setback should be an alarm bell for how the NHL is failing its players

[bambamcam4ever]

Kaprizov is probably out for the season. He has had a few set backs this years culminating in a lower body surgery that was at best 4-6 weeks recovery time. Most Wild fans knew he probably wouldn't be back for longer, but no one knew how much longer he'd be out for. More than likely he won't be back to his playing form until next season at best.

If you look at what is going on with Kaprizov, you can trace this back to when Logan Stanley folded him on the ice. He struggled at the beginning of last year before getting back to form. But he has had a nagging lower body injury since Stanley took him out almost two years ago.

It's frustrating as a Wild fan because that's two years without our best player and at the peak of his playing career due to some really dumb play by Stanley, who didn't even get fined for the play. And then you had Dillon take him out again with some cross checks to the back.

This comes back to the NHL really doesn't care about mid-market teams like the Wild. We've seen this before with the Wild, where the NHL simply looks the other way and then buries the story until Minnesota takes matters in their own hands and then the NHL scolds them for trying to protect their players. I hate Hartman, but I honestly don't fault Minnesota for having guys like Hartman when the NHL can't even muster up any sort of response.

I also think it goes to show some of the injuries that happen aren't just a day to day, week to week deal but can take years to recover from.

The NHL doesn't have it out for Minnesota. The issue is that the NHL doesn't protect star players from scrubs. They think it's a bigger priority to protect the scrubs from star players instead, because they wouldn't have a chance otherwise if they weren't allowed to hold and cheat.

 

[IWantSakicAsMyGM]

If Friedman is right, I would be very interested in learning if the infection from the injection was just a freak happening or if they simply didn't follow procedure to avoid such a thing. Obviously, if it's the former there isn't anything they could do about it, but if it's the latter that's a problem. Method matters, I think you and I probably agree about that.

As far as an AC injury, I don't know enough about those or how they are detected to have an opinion on that, so I'll leave that topic to others who are more informed about them.

I hurt my shoulder about 20 years ago, lifting something at work. I went to the doctor in excruciating pain, and had xrays, MRIs, CT scans, and none of the tests showed anything wrong. It took finally getting referred to a sports orthopedist after 6 months to finally get diagnosed with a grade 1 strain of my AC joint, which means I damaged the ligaments that hold the collar bone and shoulder blade together, just not enough to tear anything so it shows up on scans. So, I absolutely believe otherwise competent doctors could miss an AC injury, in some situations.

 

[Midnight Judges]

IMO the NHL does show favoritism to certain star players and certain markets at times.

We've all seen favored star players escape fines - relatively small stuff in the big scheme of things.

The hockey media, OTOH, achieves silly levels of bias that a grade school child could see through.

 

[NHL1674]

Is he really done for the season? I have him in a pool and was waiting on more info before dropping him.

No. They have not said he's done for the season. They just said his recovery time is going to be a little longer than expected.

 

[MrHeiskanen]

The only thing failing him seems to be the Wild medical staff which over the course of the last few months have continued to show their incompetence.