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The St. Louis Blues will be without center Radek Faksa on Thursday night when they play host to the San Jose Sharks, and the reason why is not for the feint of heart. Faksa, a 10-year NHL veteran from the Czech Republic, left late in St. Louis’ 4-3 overtime victory over the Vancouver Canucks.
He appeared to suffer an injury in a battle along the boards with Canucks forward Danton Heinen. Unfortunately for Faksa, the resulting impact sent Heinen’s skate up into the air where it made contact near Faksa’s groin.Faksa immediately skated to the bench and headed towards the locker room.
(Video of the incident hit social media on Wednesday night but is not an easy to watch for guys across the world.)
Faksa will not play tonight, after leaving Tuesday’s game when the skate of a Vancouver player hit him in the …
“I’m not a doctor, but it was real close to his privates,” Jim Montgomery said.
So OBVIOUSLY it could have been worse?
“t could’ve been MUCH worse,” Monty said.
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) December 12, 2024
St. Louis Blues Coach Weighs In On Radek Faksa Taking Skate To The Groin
“I’m not a doctor, but it was real close to his privates,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery told members of the media on Wednesday. “It could’ve been much worse.”
Later Thursday afternoon, St. Louis confirmed that Faksa, who has just seven points in 29 games this season, would not play in the game against the Sharks.
“He’s doing all right. He got cut by a skate. He took some stitches, but thankfully, no damage,” Montgomery said of the injury.
Now, I’m not exactly sure I’d say “no damage.” And Faksa likely wouldn’t classify it as “no damage.” But, it is a lot less damage than it could have been. So that’s good!
Look at this way, he could’ve have been former NHL veteran defenseman Mark Streit, who missed six weeks with what the Philadelphia Flyers called a “pubic plate detachment” in 2015. See, it can always be worse.