November 15, 2015
Normally, it's frustrating when hockey teams fail to be specific in disclosing an injury to one of their players. Instead, they only say whether they suffered and "upper-body injury" or "lower-body injury." But on Saturday, the Philadelphia Flyers decided to get specific regarding defenseman Mark Streit.
Of course, this is the one time I may have preferred they stayed vague -- Streit will undergo surgery on Tuesday to repair a pubic plate detachment.
Injury Update: Mark Streit will have surgery on Tuesday morning to repair a pubic plate detachment. He is expected to be out for six weeks.
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) November 14, 2015
I tried looking up just what that meant, and if was as painful as it sounds. However, the best I could come up with was this description of the pubic plate from sportsmedicineimaging.com:
"The pubic plate constitutes a central hub of mechanical linkage between the abdominal wall and the lower limbs."
The site also said these kind of injuries are more common in athletes. But that doesn't make it seem any less painful.
Considering the team's struggles of late, losing arguably its top blue liner is a tough pill to swallow. Unfortunately, they lost more than that in the 37-year-old defenseman. Heading into Saturday night's game against the Hurricanes -- which the Flyers won 3-2 in overtime -- Streit was second on the team in scoring with nine points (three goals, six assists).
The Flyers also placed forward R.J. Umberger on IR with a lower-body injury and activated center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare prior to their game against the Hurricanes.
In order to fill out their roster, they also recalled defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere and left wing Taylor Leier, from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
