The confirmation is here from the Montreal Canadiens. Shea Weber will be shut down for the remainder of the season as he will require surgery on a tendon in his foot.
Have you ever seen a movie trailer for a sequel, and then you sit down in the theatre and notice it’s exactly like the first one? If you need an example, check out 21 Jump Street and then it’s sequel 22 Jump Street (but I think they did that on purpose to be funny). This injury situation with Shea Weber and the Montreal Canadiens got an answer today, and you can’t help but notice flashing similarities.
The 32-year-old injured himself pretty early in the season tried to battle through it, arguably came back too early and made it worse, was shut down momentarily, and jumped back and forth between that and being day-to-day. Anytime the coaching staff was asked about Weber’s status; they would stress how he’s progressing and continuing to be monitored and re-evaluated.
Now the veteran is seeing multiple specialists to help ease the path to recovery for his foot.
The path for Shea Weber goes from Mtl docs to a Toronto specialist and it's believed he saw another specialist this week in Wisconsin.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) February 22, 2018
It’s not looking good. The Habs may not have to even officially announce it; Weber is done for the season. That’s not what the issue is; it’s that something like this happened before with Carey Price.
The 2015-16 season was a low-point for the Habs. Price went down initially and wasn’t responding to treatment, however, surgery wasn’t required. The then 28-year-old sat out for nine games and then returned to take on the New York Islanders stopping 33 of 36 shots to get the win. Everything seemed fine until a game against the New York Rangers became Price’s last of that season.
The coaching staff and Price himself stressed that he wouldn’t come back until he was 100%. Unfortunately, it would take longer than the course of the regular season. The Habs fell off a cliff, and the rest is history. Ironically in a similar situation with Weber, Montreal are set to have another bottom ten finish in the league.
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Sometimes it’s hard to gauge the nature and length of the injury. However to go from two to three weeks, to the All-Star Break, to the Trade Deadline, back to indefinitely is frustrating. How the injury happened can’t be helped, but the Habs may not have done themselves any favours by keeping Weber out sooner and/or longers.
Everyone is different, and different players handle injuries differently. However, in the last three years, we have two examples of incidents that have cost seasons. It’s tough to see the both of them as being mutually exclusive.
Would having Weber around improve the team? For sure. Would it have propelled them to a playoff spot when there was a change? Who knows. The only thing fans and the team can hope for is a successful surgery and a smooth recovery for Weber. This season is over, but they’ll need him next year to turn things around.