Injury Report: Flames Shut Down Sean Monahan: Hip Surgery

[Mazatt]

So why does Hanifin get shut down immediately after he aggravates his shoulder but Monahan plays until we're eliminated?

The Flames did the exact same thing with Hanifin though. He got hurt, they kept playing him, and then he got hurt AGAIN to the point of no return. Monahan got hurt inititally (whenever he sat against Edmonton) and was able to play through it enough to where he could still technically skate. Flames kept both of them in as long as possible despite the injury concerns. Just an absolute lack of foresight from the flames on a season that was lost a while ago.

 

[Volica]

The Flames did the exact same thing with Hanifin though. He got hurt, they kept playing him, and then he got hurt AGAIN to the point of no return. Monahan got hurt inititally (whenever he sat against Edmonton) and was able to play through it enough to where he could still technically skate. Flames kept both of them in as long as possible despite the injury concerns. Just an absolute lack of foresight from the flames on a season that was lost a while ago.

This happens more times than NHL teams are willing to admit, and is a little dirty secret in the league.

Guys play through injuries all the time, and wear it like a badge of honour. As someone who knows a guy who provided... erm... “medication” to a number of the Vancouver Canucks players in the mid 2010’s, it’s actually crazy what these guys put their bodies through.

Like, they play on razors, ripping around ice at Mach speed, while also getting bumped and pushed... these guys aren’t yoga masters, they’re constantly tweaking knees, shoulders, ankles, hips, necks; all the major flex points on the body.

Calgary was out of this for so long. They should have shut Monahan down like 15 games into the season. He was terrible for 80% of the season, and was one of the main contributing factors as to why we’re hoping to lose the rest of our remaining games.

 

[InfinityIggy]

This happens more times than NHL teams are willing to admit, and is a little dirty secret in the league.

Guys play through injuries all the time, and wear it like a badge of honour. As someone who knows a guy who provided... erm... “medication” to a number of the Vancouver Canucks players in the mid 2010’s, it’s actually crazy what these guys put their bodies through.

Like, they play on razors, ripping around ice at Mach speed, while also getting bumped and pushed... these guys aren’t yoga masters, they’re constantly tweaking knees, shoulders, ankles, hips, necks; all the major flex points on the body.

Calgary was out of this for so long. They should have shut Monahan down like 15 games into the season. He was terrible for 80% of the season, and was one of the main contributing factors as to why we’re hoping to lose the rest of our remaining games.

If anyone hasn't watched TSNs "The Problem of Pain" it gives a really good (if incomplete) look into this kind of thing. It is rampant in the league.

 

[Lunatik]

The Flames did the exact same thing with Hanifin though. He got hurt, they kept playing him, and then he got hurt AGAIN to the point of no return. Monahan got hurt inititally (whenever he sat against Edmonton) and was able to play through it enough to where he could still technically skate. Flames kept both of them in as long as possible despite the injury concerns. Just an absolute lack of foresight from the flames on a season that was lost a while ago.

Players play through injuries all the time. Pretty much every team has 1-3 players at the end of every season that has to get something surgically repaired.

 

[Mobiandi]

The Flames did the exact same thing with Hanifin though. He got hurt, they kept playing him, and then he got hurt AGAIN to the point of no return. Monahan got hurt inititally (whenever he sat against Edmonton) and was able to play through it enough to where he could still technically skate. Flames kept both of them in as long as possible despite the injury concerns. Just an absolute lack of foresight from the flames on a season that was lost a while ago.

We tend not to lose many man games from injury but I think of guys like Backlund, Frolik, Gaudreau, Tkachuk, Brodie who have all taken considerable time mid-season to recover from various ailments.

The story with Monahan is that he always needs surgery for something at the end of the year. Hanifin made his shoulder injury worse after a freak collision that happened 8 days after he originally tweaked it and that was it for him. 20+ games plus practices and travel with a hip injury is so mindblowingly stupid. Playing through that doesn't get easier. I have no idea what Monahan or this organization were thinking to let him play through another serious injury again.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Crazy that they knew he was hurt and still decided to force him to center the top line. Isn't this the reason you carry 5 NHL centers in Lindholm, Bennett, Backlund, and Ryan? I feel like that's what they kept telling Bennett - that he'd get a shot at center once the injury bug hits.

I mean Sean's not the fastest guy to begin with and center requires a lot of skating. He should have swapped roles with Bennett to maybe salvage the relationship with Sam and give Monahan a smaller role.

Part of me feels bad for Monahan. Dude's obviously injury prone but plays for an organization that has forced him into an elevated role and praises playing through injury in the middle of the regular season.

 

[User1996]

Hahahah these “selfish player” comments can’t be real can they? It’s literally the exact opposite. A guy that’s willing to literally play through a surgery that needs an operation is the kind of guy I’d take on my team any day.

 

[Nanuuk]

I see we have a bunch of Doctors on the site. Who knew?

 

[TheHudlinator]

To bad we didn't have another center to play in his place to let him get surgery earlier.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Hahahah these “selfish player” comments can’t be real can they? It’s literally the exact opposite. A guy that’s willing to literally play through a surgery that needs an operation is the kind of guy I’d take on my team any day.

I completely agree. The only "selfish" thing I could ever see happening with a player (not Monahan) is a guy who doesn't want to risk losing his spot to someone else (even temporarily) because he's concerned the guy who replaces him would prove better.

 

[Rubi]

Damaged goods. He’s hurt every year. Time to move on.

Weren't all the naysayers saying that about Tanev when the Flames signed him... damaged goods, gets hurt every year?
Alas, he hasn't missed a single game this year.

Monahan may not have had the best season this year but its not like the Flames are overwhelmingly blessed with offensive power and they could easily replace him.
Even with playing on one hip Mony still finished 4th in Flames scoring.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Weren't all the naysayers saying that about Tanev when the Flames signed him... damaged goods, gets hurt every year?
Alas, he hasn't missed a single game this year.

Monahan may not have had the best season this year but its not like the Flames are overwhelmingly blessed with offensive power and they could easily replace him.
Even with playing on one hip Mony still finished 4th in Flames scoring.

They had Bennett just sitting there ready to go.

If you're getting to center the team's best offensive player and play on the top PP unit you better not finish any worse than 4th on the team in scoring.

He was 8th on the team in 5v5 scoring behind

Gaudreau
Lindholm
Tkachuk
Mangiapane
Backlund
Lucic
Dube

He was tied 8th in 5v5 goals with Leivo and Giordano.

This is not to hate on Monahan but let's not pretend like his performance this year would have been tough to replace. His performance and the decision to keep him as the team's top center were both not acceptable.

 

[Mazatt]

Players play through injuries all the time. Pretty much every team has 1-3 players at the end of every season that has to get something surgically repaired.

Just because guys play through big injuries all the time doesn't make it any less foolish for the team to continue to allow these guys to go out there and risk their bodies for no good reason. Like, was Monahan always slated for surgery since they knew he was injured and had him sit out some games? Did they potentially make his injury worse by playing him through the season? Even if the season wasn't lost that is irresponsible of a team and it shouldn't be waived away because that's something that everyone does. This should be an opportunity for the Flames to look to the future and stop their players from hurting themselves in their post-career lives, but they, and plenty of other teams, haven't been able to assert themselves as caring about their players safety. That's a genuine issue.

 

[InfinityIggy]

Weren't all the naysayers saying that about Tanev when the Flames signed him... damaged goods, gets hurt every year?
Alas, he hasn't missed a single game this year.

Monahan may not have had the best season this year but its not like the Flames are overwhelmingly blessed with offensive power and they could easily replace him.
Even with playing on one hip Mony still finished 4th in Flames scoring.

That was the rhetoric about 1 Mikael Backlund for about half a decade. Thank goodness they didn’t give up on him

 

[DFF]

So it’s not the wrist?

 

[Some Other Flame]

Hahahah these “selfish player” comments can’t be real can they? It’s literally the exact opposite. A guy that’s willing to literally play through a surgery that needs an operation is the kind of guy I’d take on my team any day.

Personally I'd rather have a player with an actual team first mentality that has the capacity to recognize that they're a liability on the ice that's hurting the team more than helping during the regular season grind. And for that player to selflessly step aside, heal and let someone else help the team.

But while I'm wishing for miracles, I might as well wish that this organization had the capacity to sit injured players while giving someone else an opportunity. But nah, they'll play the liability 20 minutes a night on the first line because who wants actual success when you can pathetically cling to HEART and DEDICATION because of an overinflated ego and too much pride.

 

[User1996]

I completely agree. The only "selfish" thing I could ever see happening with a player (not Monahan) is a guy who doesn't want to risk losing his spot to someone else (even temporarily) because he's concerned the guy who replaces him would prove better.

Yeah I completely agree. Team should have definitely reduced his minutes or changed his role, but I’ll give props to any guy that tries to gut it out for the team.

 

[User1996]

Personally I'd rather have a player with an actual team first mentality that has the capacity to recognize that they're a liability on the ice that's hurting the team more than helping during the regular season grind. And for that player to selflessly step aside, heal and let someone else help the team.

But while I'm wishing for miracles, I might as well wish that this organization had the capacity to sit injured players while giving someone else an opportunity. But nah, they'll play the liability 20 minutes a night on the first line because who wants actual success when you can pathetically cling to HEART and DEDICATION because of an overinflated ego and too much pride.

Do you genuinely think that playing any player currently on the roster in Monahan’s place would lead to a better result? I sure don’t.

 

[Lunatik]

Just because guys play through big injuries all the time doesn't make it any less foolish for the team to continue to allow these guys to go out there and risk their bodies for no good reason. Like, was Monahan always slated for surgery since they knew he was injured and had him sit out some games? Did they potentially make his injury worse by playing him through the season? Even if the season wasn't lost that is irresponsible of a team and it shouldn't be waived away because that's something that everyone does. This should be an opportunity for the Flames to look to the future and stop their players from hurting themselves in their post-career lives, but they, and plenty of other teams, haven't been able to assert themselves as caring about their players safety. That's a genuine issue.

It's f***ing hilarious that people with basically zero information and zero medical expertise run their mouths about how it is "foolish", or "irresponsible". How others are using this to push their stupid f***ing Bennett narrative... etc.

These decisions are made with consultation from medical professionals, unlike the posts on here.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Do you genuinely think that playing any player currently on the roster in Monahan’s place would lead to a better result? I sure don’t.

I definitely think Bennett would have been better in Monahan's role, but in his absence I'd play Derek Ryan as a 3C over an injured Monahan. You could also move Dube back to his natural position.

Ideally you rest Monahan or play him as a bottom 6 winger + 2nd PP unit.

 

[BobColesNasalCavity]

Weren't all the naysayers saying that about Tanev when the Flames signed him... damaged goods, gets hurt every year?
Alas, he hasn't missed a single game this year.

Monahan may not have had the best season this year but its not like the Flames are overwhelmingly blessed with offensive power and they could easily replace him.
Even with playing on one hip Mony still finished 4th in Flames scoring.

Tanev wasn’t brought in to score the bulk of our offense and goals. So not a good comparison.

That’s not good enough from a guy supposed to be our 1C one hip or not. He should’ve been getting it fixed if it was that bad. And this isn’t the first year that’s hes tried playing through injuries and been absolutely useless down the stretch while playing through them. The excuses for Monahan have gotten old.

2 wrist surgeries, groin surgery, hernia surgery, hip surgery all within 3 years? We’re not talking about a guy who goes in the corners and plays rough either. The guys a bandaid. You can’t build a team around a guy like that. He’s more than welcome to negotiate a lower AAV on his next contract if he wants to stay.

 

[Lunatik]

Do you genuinely think that playing any player currently on the roster in Monahan’s place would lead to a better result? I sure don’t.

I don't know who you are replying to because I can't see, but it's got to be one of the Bennett Brigade... but what's hilarious is Monahan needed to be hurt 80% of the season and Bennett gifted top minutes and have an unsustainable hot streak in Florida with one of the better players in the league for Bennett to even equal Monahan's output

 

[Some Other Flame]

Do you genuinely think that playing any player currently on the roster in Monahan’s place would lead to a better result? I sure don’t.

Given Monahan's miserable season, yeah. If Monahan had been producing and contributing at something even close to his usual rate, then sure I'd understand why he was kept in. But he wasn't. He wasn't even close. His performance was miserable and it's really hard to believe that running Lindholm-Backlund-Ryan-Gawdin/Ruzicka/Froese down the middle would have been worse.

Hell, a competently organization would have shut Monahan down and at least tried Bennett in that role prior to trading him.

Edit: Completely forgot about Dube. They could have used Monahan's injury to see what Dube could do at center. What a wasted opportunity.

 

[Ace Rimmer]

Sean Monahan has been playing injured?

I'm shocked!

/s

 

[Mazatt]

It's f***ing hilarious that people with basically zero information and zero medical expertise run their mouths about how it is "foolish", or "irresponsible". How others are using this to push their stupid f***ing Bennett narrative... etc.

These decisions are made with consultation from medical professionals, unlike the posts on here.

I'm not claiming to have proffessional opinion, and I don't think anyone is here either. We're all reacting to the same information everyone has. We are also not bound purely to what happened with Monahan here as our base of knowledge. It's no secret that players play through injuries and that hockey culture as a whole promotes it. We have a quote from Sutter in this thread giving Monahan props for playing through this injury. I think you're conflating this issue with other people out there who have hype for Bennett.

Just based off the limited information (yes, doctors are consulted here but without their quotes in here we can't speculate that the hip injury is unimpactful) such as Monahan missing games earlier in the year with an LBI, and the culmination of hockey culture to play through injuries, it shouldn't be a point of ridicule that the teams #1 centre is AGAIN being shut down right after they've been eliminated for surgical procedures. That is 100% cause for concern and waiving that away because "Well doctors are involved" as though team doctors are infallible and have the players best interest in mind is weird. We literally have a case in the NHL now where Eichel is being referred away from experimental surgery that could improve his QoL because it hasn't been preformed on an NHL player before, and they are pushing for him to take a longer, more arduous route to maybe getting healthy. There is no reason to assume hockey doctors are infallible and defending them this vehemently is weird to me.