I've said it before and I'll say it again. Hockey players are the toughest professional athletes in the world. Often times, we don't even know what the extent of a player's injuries are until after the playoffs are over and we hear about what guys have been playing through and what surgeries were required to repair the damage.
Following the Leafs' 3-0 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday, Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe spoke with the media and revealed that Jake Muzzin returned to the lineup at less than 100% - which shouldn't shock anyone, given how uncomfortable he looked at practice recently. He also said that the plan is for Muzzin to continue to battle through his injuries.
Not only has Muzzin suffered a pair of concussions this season, but there is a lot of speculation flying around right now that Muzzin is suffering from a hip injury that may require surgery. Obviously, at this time of the year, coaches and GM's will not reveal anything relating to player injuries for obvious reasons, so there's no way to confirm what's actually wrong.
The Woodstock, ON native has two years remaining after this one on his current deal, which carries a $5.625M cap hit. Could we see a situation where Muzzin winds up on LTIR to finish out his contract, much like what we had seen with Brent Seabrook, Marian Hossa, Marian Gaborik, Joffrey Lupul, Dennis Seidenberg and countless others?
