Haggerty On Toucher & Rich: Injuries Can't Be The Excuse For Most
Hockey season ended earlier than Bruins fans hoped for this year after the Washington Capitals eliminated the B's in seven games.
Now with the team's season over news started coming out about injuries guys were playing through in these tough games.
Comcast SportsNet's Joe Haggerty joined Toucher & Rich to discuss what the Bruins are in the market for in the offseason and what players were battling through injuries.
Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli said that he's in the market for a top nine forward in this offseason, but what kind of guy is he talking about. In Haggerty's opinion is Chiarelli talking about a depth acquisition or a pure goal scorer?
"I think some people have taken it to mean that it's merely a third line guy, especially where right after Chiarelli mentioned that he talked about Jordan Caron and Benoit Pouliot. He mentioned them by name, he didn't want them to be worried about whatever and he wasn't trying to find someone to replace their jobs. So that would make you think that it's a third line guy, but I think you got to shoot for bigger fish here."
Once a team's season ends all the reports about injuries players were dealing with start to come out. It was clear that center Patrice Bergeron was dealing with some sort of injury in the Capitals series and after they were eliminated we learned he was dealing with a strained oblique muscle. What other guys were trying to play through an injury?
"Tyler Seguin needs surgery on a knuckle on his left hand that was like blown up and much bigger than the rest of the knuckles on his hand, there was a tendon that got displaced. That actually happened towards the end of the regular season against Florida in their final trip there in March and he played through the rest of the year with it."
Were injuries the reason why the B's didn't make it out of the first round of the playoffs this year?
"I think for the most part there were a couple of guys who were banged up, obviously Bergeron and I think Seguin the fact that he needs surgery were the biggest ones, but there weren't a ton of guys that can use injuries as and excuse. I think this was more under-performance, this was more fatigue from the year before which manifested in them not being able to get up emotionally for the playoffs like they should have."
