“He toughed it out” – Golden Knights’ Jack Eichel played final six weeks of season with broken thumb
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Jack Eichel
The Vegas Golden Knights president of hockey operations George McPhee on Monday revealed that Jack Eichel played the final six weeks of the regular season with a broken thumb. The 25-year-old center left has earlier sustained an upper-body injury in the second period of a 5-3 win against the Florida Panthers at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on March 17 in the National Hockey League (NHL).
“What most people probably wouldn’t know is he broke his thumb in a bad way about three or four weeks into his return,” McPhee said on ‘The Bob McCown Podcast’, as quoted by NHL.com. “It was non-displaced, so he didn’t have to have surgery, but it was a bad fracture, and the guy didn’t miss a game.
“He toughed it out. We had to numb him up and it wasn’t easy because when that wore off he was in a lot of pain. But he toughed it out for six weeks with that thumb.”
“Eichel is genetically gifted guy”
The Massachusetts native Eichel had 25 points (14 goals, 11 assists) in 34 games ahead of the trade after which he was acquired with the Buffalo Sabres on November 4. He had artificial disk replacement surgery seven days later and made his season debut in February.
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“We did as much research as you could do and, boy, there weren’t many second thoughts,” McPhee said. “He got drilled a few times this year, no issues whatsoever.
“I think he is what we thought he was. He is a very genetically gifted guy, a very talented guy. He really loves the game, I guess I didn’t know enough about that.”
Unfortunately, the Golden Knights were hit by several injuries this season. They played 46 and 43 games without forwards Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty respectively apart from injuries to some of their other key players.
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Sachin Arora
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