Matt Murray out 3-6 weeks

[DarthVain]

I play hockey and can attest to playing with a number of broken things. A couple things to consider.

1) People say "Broke" a lot, but there is a big difference between similar injuries. He most likely fractured his hand, which isn't as serious. If they are saying 3-6 weeks, either they are being stupidly optimistic or it really is a fracture. Otherwise it would be a LOT longer. Stamkos BROKE his leg, you're done at that point and no you're not playing through that injury.
2) Never discount adrenaline. You simply don't feel they pain the same way. It may hurt a lot, and you might wonder how bad, but it won't feel THAT bad and you continue to play. After the game when all that adrenaline wears off... Ouch.
3) Swelling. Insofar as the actual pain is concerned, most of it is due to swelling, which can take a little while to occur. Also if it happens in a place that doesn't allow it to happen, like your foot crammed into a skate, or if his hand was already taped or something, much of that swelling won't happen until you take your skate off, or unwrap your tape or whatever.

I'd say there are very few injuries I didn't finish a game. Only the most serious and obvious would push a player to leave. Also a player might leave if they have had prior experience with that particular injury, for example they could gage the significance, and decide that while they could play even if at a bit of a diminished capacity, they might be making it worse and increasing the time it will take to heal. Hockey is one of those sports where injury is really just part of the game.

[DarthVain]

A quick hockey injury story just because I feel like telling it and many hockey players can probably relate, though I'll try to keep it short.

In a hockey tournament (probably 5 years ago or more now lol). Blocked (D) a slap shot poorly with the inside of my left foot (right in the instep). Hurt like hell. Immediately left ice, but "walked" it off. Finished the game. Played in the final, though admittedly was far from 100%, I was pretty slow at that point because it did hurt a lot. After the game taking my skate off was *ahem* very difficult (i.e. excruciating). Within the next hour it blew up like a football. Whats worse is I drove by myself to the game about an hour and have a manual. It was a long drive home and had to do some fancy clutch work on the way. By that evening (i.e. in the middle of the night) it was pretty intolerable and was just ridiculously painful. I usually keep a big bottle of ibprophan around, but of course was out. Just getting to the bathroom was now an "ordeal". The only thing I could find was old cold medicine and back pain medicine, however both had 500mg of acetaminophen so I took them all. I'm sure my back and sinus was super clear and great! At any rate by the next morning I could barely hobble around and certainty couldn't drive anywhere.

Fortunately its a good Hockey teammate that will call you up the next morning to see how you are doing and go to the drug store and pick you up the biggest bottle of painkillers (IBp) he could find and delivery them to you to get you by. Long story short I was on crutches for at least 6 maybe 8 weeks, and was done longer than that. Injuries take awhile to manifest their severity, which is why outlooks can change sometimes (tho yes NHL probably under reports half the time for various reasons I'm sure also).

[2014olympicgold]

If it’s on his glove hand he wouldn’t notice until it would get hit by a puck likely, and decided it was just a bad bruise. He likely didn’t realize it was broken till after the game.

If it was on his blocker hand, I’m not sure how he’d hold his stick that easily.

[captaincrunch32]

blocker hand...http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/p...s/201609260140