As one player who has seen his career hindered by injuries is lost for the rest of the season, another is hoping to make a comeback. Boston's Marc Savard will miss the rest of the season due to post-concussion related issues. Meanwhile, the Anaheim Ducks have signed Ray Emery to a deal as he tries to return from a serious hip injury.
Savard has had a bad run of concussion related issues the past couple of seasons. Savard suffered a concussion last season, but returned for the playoffs, which in actuality was probably not a wise decision. He missed the first 23 games of this season with post-concussion symptoms, and then played 25 games, scoring two goals and eight assists, before shutting it down.
This is, obviously, really disappointing. Savard is a tremendous player who, like many before him, is seeing his career hindered by concussions. Now that the various sporting leagues are starting to take concussions as seriously as they should, hopefully there will be less instances of Savard like issues for players in the future. At least Savard hasn't had to hang up the skates, and hopefully he does get to make a return to the NHL, perhaps by next season. As for the Bruins, they've been able to manage without him for most of the season, and with the goaltending tandem of Tuukka Rask and likely Vezina winner Tim Thomas, Boston could still have a deep playoff run in them.
Emery, meanwhile, is coming off surgery he had in October to deal with deterioration to the ball of his hip joint. This is, roughly, what ended Bo Jackson's career, but Emery hopes to return to the NHL despite this serious injury. Now, the Ducks don't intend to rely on him just yet, as when he clears waivers they'll assign him to the AHL. If he can manage there, he'll be called up to be Jonas Hiller's backup. Fortunately for Anaheim, and probably for Emery, that's not exactly a difficult task. Hiller has been a workhorse this season, so if Emery can play, he'll probably only be needed a few night the rest of the way. While he didn't have the best reputation in the league in terms of attitude when he played, it would still be nice to see him be able to play again.
Savard and Emery are in two different stages of their attempts to recover from serious injuries, but hopefully in the end they will both be successful in their quests to play in the NHL once more.
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