Yes, there was the Leetch ankle injury and I remember James Patrick missed a part of the season but other than that the team was healthy. The year before they finished with 105 points (before the days of loser points) and that year 79 points.
Many people forget Leetch had two major injuries that year. Late November/early December in St Louis he lost an edge & fell awkward into the boards really hard, suffering nerve damage in his shoulder. Missed about 30 games which really started the freefall. The team actually got off to a pretty decent start & were poised to make the playoffs until that first injury. Thanksgiving Eve was a complete shellacking in Pittsburgh. I think we scored 9 or 10 goals.
When Leetch made it back, they were still fighting for a playoff spot....until he broke his ankle, drunk outside a bar late on a Saturday night. The city had a few bad snowstorms that winter & this was one of those nights. Then a week or so later, Mario making his return from cancer treatments, scores 5 goals in his first game back which happened to be at MSG. The season literally ended that night. There was a month or so left of games, but I think we lost every one of them. Or at least it felt like that.
Another under the radar event that happened, was the youth purge slowly began. Domi & Kris King were the first to go....for Ed Olcyzk. You could feel the vibe of the Presidents Trophy Team from the year before was officially dead. Kris King was a very underrated player for his 4 seasons here. Then Doug Weight for Tikkanen at the deadline in a desperation move when the season was already lost.
Just to clarify for the millennials here, we had tie games worth 1 point back then. They played to the 3rd period buzzer and that was it.
OT was around back then. 5v5 for 5 minutes...then a tie.