Blackhawks’ Corey Crawford Hurts Foot at Concert; Martin Brodeur Debuts with Blues

Some items from the NHL’s Central Division teams caught our attention this week.

Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford has an injured foot, but he didn’t get it in a game or at practice. Crawford attended a concert at Chicago’s House of Blues and missed a step while leaving the show. The exact injury hasn’t been disclosed, but he was wearing a walking boot on his left foot and is projected to be out for two to three weeks. Crawford, who missed some time with an injury earlier in the season and said he was “embarrassed” and frustrated by the injury, is 12-5-1 with a goals against average of 1.87. Off the field or ice injuries and accidents happen, even to well conditioned athletes, and they are often freak things. There was a baseball pitcher several years ago whose name escapes us now, who injured his back picking up one of his kids.

Getting injured on a misstep is one thing, but the Minnesota Wild has something really weird going on. Defenseman Ryan Suter is out with, of all things, the mumps. He is the fifth Minnesota player to get the mumps this season, and all of them are defensemen. We can’t recall the last time we heard of a player on a professional sports team getting the mumps. Suter may be back in action this weekend.

A knee injury to Brian Elliot had the St. Louis Blues looking for another goalie, and they signed veteran Martin Brodeur to a one year contract. The 42 year old Brodeur began his career in the 1991-2 season with the New Jersey Devils, and played with them through last season. He’s the NHL’s all time winningest goalie with 688 victories. He lost his first game on December 4th as the Blues dropped a 4-3 decision to the Nashville Predators. But then a lot of teams are losing to the Predators, who are off to a hot start and lead the Central Division with a record of 17-6-2 and 36 points. St. Louis is two points behind Nashville, and Chicago is three points back.