What, exactly is going on this season with the Devils and injuries? Have we gone on the cheap and hired the Mets doctors and trainers?! Granted, there’s nothing you can do about the compressed NHL schedule which is increasing injuries for everyone around the league. However, this season there have been at least three glaring faux pas by the medical staff which would almost be unbelievable, except that I’ve seen this kind of nonsense already with my baseball team and all of these mistakes have made the Devils’ situation infinitely worse. To wit:

1. David Clarkson‘s reinjury. The Devils’ gritty winger was off to a nice start this season with 15 points in 23 games before fracturing his right ankle in late November blocking a Zdeno Chara slapshot. His timetable to return iirc was 4-6 weeks and he came back on the short end of that in late December. After barely a game back in the lineup he gets hurt again on the same ankle. While Lou Lamoriello swears he didn’t re-break it the fact is Clarkson’s been out for three more weeks with no return date in sight. I’d like to know what else he did to it to miss this long if it wasn’t a repeat fracture. And assuming it was another fracture, someone screwed up by letting Clarkson on the ice before it had properly healed.

2. Paul Martin‘s mysterious forearm injury. After breaking his left arm in late October, the Devils’ top defensman still hasn’t returned. When he was slated to make a comeback a few weeks later, the Devils discovered his injury didn’t heal properly and now he’s still on the shelf, also with no return date in sight. Now I’m no doctor but I’ve never heard of something like that before, how exactly does a broken bone not heal properly unless the cast wasn’t set correctly or there was something awry in the diagnosis to begin with?!

3. Patrik Elias‘s concussion. I don’t want to hear that Elias wasn’t showing concussion symptoms in Colorado, Lou admitted he was ‘out of it’ for a long time and clearly his injury was serious enough to strap him to a stretcher. Who then, thought it would be a good idea to fly the Devils’ star winger cross-country with concussion symptoms?! I don’t have a PhD and I could have told the Devils this wouldn’t end well after the Mets’ saga flying Ryan Church out to the West Coast last year with a concussion. After the initial Baghdad Lou analysis that he would only be out ten days, came the more dire admission that Elias was diagnosed with a concussion and placed on IR with orders not to resume hockey activities until further notice.

I’m going to say this in no uncertain terms: At least one doctor or trainer has to be fired for this mess! To have so many mistakes and screwups in one season is just mind-boggling, especially for a franchise that has historically (until last year) been one of the most well-conditioned and healthiest in the league.