The Post-Stanley Cup Injury Report: A Tradition Like No Other

One of my favorite parts about the end of a long and grueling hockey season (aside from the fact I can go to bed at a reasonable hour now) is the injury reports that come out from each respective team following their playoff runs.

Just reading about some of the maladies that plagued various NHL'ers throughout the average postseason is enough to make mere mortals wince in pain.

In a world where NBA superstars like LeBron James take an errant pinkie to the eyelid and act like a Union soldier getting his leg amputated, a run-of-the-mill fourth-line center in the Stanley Cup Playoffs is likely playing through a lacerated spleen without missing a shift.

Now that the Cup has been awarded, injury news is starting to trickle out of the winning team's camp, so I thought it would be "fun" to check out some of the devastating blows that were dealt to some pretty key players in this year's Finals.

Matthew Tkachuk - Torn Adductor/Hernia

Let's start this list off with a bang.

Star Panthers winger, Matthew Tkachuk, tore his adductor clean off his hip bone in addition to having a hernia on the same side of his body.

To offer a tiny bit of context, Tkachuk suffered this injury in February's Four Nation's Face-Off, but was apparently rehabbing up to and even after the start of the playoffs.

What a warrior!

Tkachuk seemed to cool off at times throughout the Panthers' Stanley Cup run, but when looking at his playoff totals (8 goals - 15 assists - 23 points in 23 games played), it's hard to argue he let it affect his play too much.

Sam Reinhart - Grade 2 MCL Sprain

Game 6 hero Sam Reinhart was confirmed to have been playing with a Grade 2 MCL sprain stemming from a brutal knee-on-knee hit during the Eastern Conference Finals against the Carolina Hurricanes.

To the naked eye, that looked absolutely gruesome and most players would probably be out for a month and a half (as mentioned in the post above).

Reinhart missed exactly one game, and although he got off to a slow start in the Finals against Edmonton, his four-goal performance in the Cup-clinching game on Tuesday night proved his mettle in a big way.

Potting four in a decisive series-clincher on home ice is impressive enough. Doing it with a Grade 2 MCL injury is something else entirely.

Aleksander "Sasha" Barkov - Lacerated Palm

Anytime someone has to have their palm glued shut, you can guess it's probably pretty serious.

Now factor in wearing sweaty gloves and gripping a stick while being chased by lunatics on skates for three hours a night, and this couldn't have been a very fun injury to play through.

What makes this knock all the more nasty is that Barkov's hand was sewn shut multiple times, but because the sutures kept ripping open mid-game, the medical staff eventually decided to glue the wound shut.

Have you ever had a wound sewn, stapled or glued shut?

It's as painful as it sounds, so the fact the Panthers' captain had to have this procedure done multiple times in the midst of trying to win the toughest championship in sports tells me all I need to know about Barkov's toughness.

I'm sure there were plenty of other players playing through some of the worst pain you can imagine, some of which we may never hear about.

C'est la vie in the hockey world, though, as having to disclose their injuries is almost as painful for these guys as actually sustaining them.

The next time James Harden takes a game off for load management, remember what some of these junkyard dogs had to go through.

Anything to win a cup, I suppose.