Yep...it's broken
Broken femur 3-6 months recovery in a young adult like Fiala. Best case scenario.
My guess is he misses the start of next season (obviously) and gets back in the lineup before Christmas.
Yep...it's broken
I think the shoves were because Fiala was on his stick, but maybe I'm wrong. I don't think the hit was anything different than what goes on numerous times during a game. It's incredibly dangerous, but players generally protect themselves well and take the chance. I'm surprised there aren't way more injuries, honestly, but along with all the skill we see with the puck, I think there's a whole lot of skill and tremendous strength involved in the physical battles that go on at that level.
To me, there is no question that it was a reckless hit. A broken femur is an injury that could kill or end careers. There needs to be something stronger in place to try to prevent these types of injuries.
Rylant
"For I am a sinner in the hands of an angry God. Bloody Mary, full of vodka, blessed are you among cocktails. Pray for me now and at the hour of my death, which I hope is soon. Amen." - Sterling Archer
"Don't spray that urine on my sons window. If you want a dollar for doing nothing, walk to Canada." - Malory Archer
“Anyone who thinks the pen is mightier than the sword has not been stabbed with both.” - Lemony Snicket
I understand that there are those out there who will dismiss the seriousness of this, and that's cool. I do understand that it's not as common as losing teeth. I can name probably 5 or 6 NHL players who have suffered broken femurs. I don't think I can name a single NFL, NBA or MLB player who has suffered one. I imagine that players skate faster than people can run, and hockey is really the only sport which surrounds the playing field with walls which are fairly unforgiving. Every other sport has the ground to contend with, but it's not often that you go flying directly into the ground at 30 mile an hour. If you hit the ground in another sport, it's usually a glancing bow because you are moving horizontally to it. In hockey, players often slam directly into the boards at full speed. Sometimes, that means a broken femur.
I think it's pretty serious. Most people who suffer a broken femur never play again at a professional level. I think it is ridiculously more common in hockey than other sports. Maybe I am wrong. I don't think it would be a bad thing to examine rule changes would could help prevent this kind of injury.
Rylant
I would bet it's more common in soccer than hockey.
- - - Updated - - -
Could name at least 3 instances in soccer off the top of my head
If that's the case, which I doubt, would it be because soccer is played by many more people than hockey, therefore it's just a matter of numbers? What would a good reason that that type of injury would happen more often in soccer? Soccer has the posts which could be a hazzard, and I am sure you could break a femur just getting tangled up with somebody and falling awkwardly, but that happens in hockey too. There are no boards surrounding the playing field which people can hit directly at 30 miles an hour in soccer, like there is in hockey. I can probably name 5 hockey players who have broken a femur by smashing into the boards at full speed. That is a condition which is pretty specific to hockey.
Rylant
Just a thought on this, but I kind of agree with rylant, but instead of a rule change, what about a tweak to the rink? If we kept everything intact, but maybe extended the length of the ice surface another say 1-2 feet, it would create:
1) more room behind the net
2) more space in the offensive zones
3) still have a hybrid icing, but maybe it would help to alleviate an injury like this happening? No clue if it would matter, but was a thought
4) goalies may be a little less apt to play the puck/more room for a dump in
On the contrary I'm not sure this would even be possible in arenas (also would lose a few seats I suppose)
Unfortunately injuries happen. I also agree I still want players to chase and compete to obtain/cancel an icing, but also maybe do something to help ease the serious injury. There's no way to make the boards soft (that I know of)
The NHL missed the boat on making the rinks bigger about 20 years ago when a lot of new rinks were being built. Another dumb decision.
Players are bigger and faster than they were back in the 1930's. So why not make rinks bigger than they were 80 years ago? To make matters worse, they add a 2nd referee. lol They really don't need a 2nd referee out there because every questionable call goes to video revue anyhow.
This is pretty cool info of rinks back from the early 1900's.
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4ObkN2WAAEeh4G.jpg
Not to be too dismissive but even though this is unfortunate it isn't exactly something to make a rule about. This wasn't an icing even. If there was a rash of injuries happening every year like there used to be with headshots then I can see looking into it but we know how slow the NHL was to respond to that issue despite it being a clear problem.
Honestly, I've seen just as many players cut by skates whether in the neck or leg etc. which is life threatening as well so should there be some kind of rule change for that? No. Those injuries are freak occurances and this one is as well. Heck, hybrid icing has already taken much of this danger away, but again, this wasn't an icing play.
When anyone, myself included, steps out onto the ice to play hockey there are certain risks that need to be accepted like being cut by a skate, crashing into the boards and sustaining an injury, taking a slap shot to the throat because some moron can't keep it down, the list goes on. As long as hockey has boards and players flying around at high speeds there will be occasions like this and no rule change will stop that.
I agree that it is unfortunate to see and I do wish Fiala a full and speedy recovery from what is essentially a freak accident.
10 team full keeper roto 4C/LW/RW,6D,2G
G,A,P,+/-,PIM,SOG,GWG,PPP,SHP,Hit,Blk,FOW
W,GAA,SV,SV%,SHO
C-Aho,Couturier,Matthews,O'Reilly
LW-Ehlers,Giroux,Panarin,Rust
RW-Kucherov,Palmieri,Pastrnak,Wilson
D-Burns,Carlson,Gudas,Josi,Nurse,Pietrangelo
G-Fleury,F.Andersen,Markstrom
BN-Zacha
Under 250 gp farm
Beaucage,Berggren,Bokk,Brisson,Chytil,Dugan,Foerst er,Foote,Frost,Grewe,K.Johnson,Lindblom,Mikheyev,N ybeck,Peterka,Pospisil,Protas,Ranta,Raty,Stankoven ,Suzuki,Tuomaala
Alexeyev,Brook,Foote,Graves,Poirier,Sanderson,Seid er,Wilde,Woo,Zamula
Berdin,Brossoit,Commesso,Ersson,Husso,Knight,Koche tkov,Lafontaine,Oettinger,Primeau,Sandstrom,Stolar z,Ustimenko,Vladar