Blame the athletic trainers. Or the strength and conditioning coaches. Or all the way up to the medical staff.
Or just blame the real culprit.
Because here's the cold fact, this courtesy of the Penguins' 8-4 loss Tuesday night in New York, from the third period:
When John Marino was tripped by the Rangers' Pavel Buchnevich, he briefly became airborne, then landed with a fair amount of force face-first onto the ice. After which he went down the Madison Square Garden tunnel to the locker room for treatment, never to return.
There was no immediate word from Mike Sullivan afterward on Marino's status, but the part that's already certain -- at least from one of the most maddening public perspectives that gets offered regarding professional sports -- is that the injury could've been prevented if only the team would employ a more competent off-ice staff.
Take the Penguins alone, as they make for an unfortunately fine example on this front: They've now lost 208 man-games to injury, third-most in the NHL, including these five players who sat out Tuesday night: Evgeni Malkin, Kasperi Kapanen, Teddy Blueger, Brandon Tanev and Mark Friedman. And going back over the past decade, no franchise has been hit harder by injury, per multiple studies.
Why?
Well, the only fair way to do this, as with anything medical, is through case-by-case study:
• Malkin was hurt when his knee rammed hard into the knee of the Bruins' Jared Tinordi while he was simultaneously hit hard at chest level.
• Blueger was hurt when, in the previous game, Tinordi cross-checked him in the side.
• Kapanen was hurt when a clearing attempt came around the boards and hit him in the foot.
• Tanev was hurt ... no one really knows, but he's Tanev, and he does Tanev things at Tanev speed, so I'll bet it was that.
• Friedman was concussed after a wicked collision.
OK, I'm game, and I'm carrying a pitchfork: Who do we fire over these?
Or over Jason Zucker nearly ripping his ankle out of his skate boot earlier in the year?
No, seriously, it's a silly subject that comes up way too often. Sure, there are exceptions. But the general rule in sports is that the most genuinely preventable injuries are of the soft-tissue variety. Hamstrings, groins and similar fare. Isolating on hockey, hamstrings almost never get hurt because of the emphasis on the front of the leg. Groins do get hurt, usually with goaltenders doing violent splits. But there isn't much in the soft-tissue category, in Pittsburgh or anywhere in the NHL.
The Penguins have been terribly unlucky. End diagnosis.
YOUR TURN: Bubble-wrap, perhaps?
