Komets forward Lance Galbraith injured his right knee with 5:00 left Friday night. Galbraith banged with Quad City defenseman Joel Pullman on their way into the boards, lost his balance and landed awkwardly. With the help of teammates, he left the game.
No one knows the prognosis yet, not the coach, general manager, trainer, team doctor or even Galbraith himself.
``Wish I could tell you,'' he said in the locker room after the game, ``because I'd like to know myself.''
We'll know more on Monday when he has an MRI done on the leg. Galbraith did not go with the Komets to Quad City after the game, and it out for at the very least two-to-three weeks. The good news is that Galbraith was able to gingerly walk on the leg in the locker room and it's not the same knee that he hurt last year with Idaho of the East Coast Hockey League.
With knee injuries, you don't say that it doesn't look that bad because you never know until the swelling goes down. Wish I could give everyone some hope, but we simply don't know so it's not a completely discouraging picture either.
And before anyone says anything stupid about Pullman, he actually let up on Galbraith or the injury could have been much, much worse. He actually only hit Galbraith lightly if at all because Pullman spread his arms to hit on either side of Galbraith and spread his legs as well. Replays showed and Galbraith said afterward that it had nothing to do with Pullman.
Comments
I hear you Blake about maybe it wasn't a cheap shot. But I do have to say that Quad City came out in the third and were starting to use the sticks on guys (slashing, highsticking, spearing, etc.) and they were getting extra shots in on Galbraith every chance they could. After the Galbraith play, Kelly Miller took a highstick that was definitely intended and if you noticed, no one came to his rescue. Chaulk took a cheapy in the corner after a whistle, and I did see Kelly Miller skate down to protect Chaulk. My main beef is that the Komet's are so passive when it comes to backing up their teammates. Why is that? I think we are in trouble when it comes to the playoffs because no one is feared on our team. The other teams in the playoff picture right now will beat the living tar out of our guys. Teams take their shots at our stars and no one does a thing about it. Lance and Ryan have maybe once or twice this year and thats about it. We have Frawley as the 10th man tonight and I think he got one shift at the end of the game. Why not bring in someone who can add that extra dimension of toughness and put them in the 10th forward position just to give the other teams something to think about? It's not like we would be losing anything with what that position is not giving us right now. It seems we are wasting a roster spot when we could actually utilize it with a guy who could come in and mix it up. Just a thought. I know it is probably going to be an unpopular thought. But this is America.
Why give QC the satisfaction of letting them know they are getting to you? I don't know. As I said in the Hey Scoop Guys post, I thought this was important because it showed the Komets can gut out a tough win in a physical game when they need to. Can they do it every night? We'll sure find out tonight, won't we? Where does it say they can't stand up for themselves, either? They were also laying the wood pretty good themselves all night. I think tonight's game is 100 times more important than Friday's game was and will answer one way or the other a lot of the things you have been talking about Hit Somebody. Tonight's game could determine if the Komets are players at the trading deadline or not.
Show me what you've got, Komets.
Although the hit on Galbraith may have not been dirty, I will say this had that been a Rockford player, there would have been 4 icehogs all over Pollman. Remember the hit Chaulk put on Chaz Johnson they did not wait to ask question they went right after Chaulk. They prefer to ask questions later. Why did QC put out Trembly or Olynk (sp) with the score 4-0 with 5:30 left. To try to start something, send a message so to speak. No takers on the K's, for my money that is a perfect time to rub it in. If Galby's knee is in bad shape I feel the K's will have to make a move
Also, 6,800 at tonight's game, first time in a awhile that a Friday night game drew under 7,000. I thought that number was inflated.
Blake, I am not sure I understand. How does Saturdays game determine if they will make a trade or aquisition? Isn't a given no matter what happens at Quad City that we need another scoring forward and possibly someone to replace Lance if he is badly injured? How about a Chad Cabana type player? He was big 3 years ago.
I don't think they will go after more trades becuase they don't want to mess with the chemistry right now and they'd have to give up too much to get something. If the perfect deal falls in, they'll go for it.
If they win convincingly in QC, in a game QC absolutely MUST have, why change anything until they find out what happens Monday with the MRI? Just as there is addition by subtraction, there's also adding the wrong player at the wrong time. The chemistry on this team reminds me of some of the great Komets playoff teams like 91 or 94 a little bit.
I hope you are right Blake. I just hope this team has what it takes against bigger, tougher, nastier, more talented teams in the playoffs. It is hard to tell much of anything when we have been primarily playing the teams in the bottom of the standings recently. We are lucky that our games haven't been night after night against Rockford, Muskegon, and K-zoo. I agree we look like a much better team. But even Quad City has been playing like poo here lately.
Who was the tv crew that was at the game tonight?
QC cable.
Not a great game to show back home.
Would be nice for our local-yocals to broadcast away games on the 60incher in my home theater.
This injury actually could be a blessing in disguise (spelling?). With Galbraith out potentially 2-3 weeks or more, he could come back next year as a "tweener' instead of a vet. Signing him as a tweener would be a huge move if you ask me. That would make our team real solid for next year. But then again you hope he isn't out long because he's been playing great lately and we need him on the ice. I believe I figured it out that if he missed 8 of the remaining games he would have 299 regular season games going into next year and I think the rule to be a vet is 300 games.
I may be in the minority here, but I don't understand what everyone is so upset about. Sure I want to see a fight just as much as the next guy. It's fun to see fights. However this isn't a boxing or UFC match. Why would we or should we fight in a game that we won 4-0? Fighting (although enertaining) is not the purpose of a hockey game. It's there to A) police the other team or B) change momentum. The game didn't go out of control. The K's never once during the game needed to change the momentum. A fight today would have given the team nothing to gain and alot to lose. Galbraith was smart not to engage a fight with five minutes left in a game we clearly dominated. There would be no point, no benifit for the team. What if Galbraith would have fought and got seriously injured? My point here in summary is: Why should the Komets play a rougher, more health risky type of a game when the system they used let them win 4-0?
Hope Lance is alright and comes back stronger and is a GREAT asset in the playoffs!!! GO KOMETS!!!!!!!
Speaking of chemistry, it looks like
Noah Whyte has fit in better than most of us expected. He doesn't do anything flashy but you don't hear/see much of him making bad passes and he seems to win his share of draws. Oh and he is also +5. I think quietly this was a solid pickup for the Komets.
As for the knee injury, everyone else is going to step up. The team has come a long way in the last few months and Lance has been a big part of it. They are going to need to pull together to replace his point production and his effort. Hopefully some other players will emerge out of this.
Tony E, I agree wiyh you on picking up Noah,He is not a shining star be he plays his pos. well.I hopr that lance is ok, he do realy need him. GO KOMETS. On another note i saw coach pick up his clip board three times last night, and coach to a couple different players. Thats what i want from the coach! Good job G.P.
Wow, talk about finding the silver lining. Way to go JC!
As for the lack of fights last night, I really believe the Komets didn't want to give QC the satisfaction.
DNLKomets, were you at the same game I was at last night? Galbraith wasn't even in the game with 5 minutes left. He took a hit after the whistle and was injured, in the locker room. I wasn't saying to fight for entertainment or to change the momentum. I was simply saying, I think that when our star players take intentional high sticks, elbows, slashes, etc, and no one lets the other team know they can't get away with it in our house, we have a problem. Is this the Jungle or not. I'd say not. We are getting softer and softer by the moment. If we play this soft game against a playoff team, not Quad City, we will get murdered. Physically and on the scoreboard. Just my opinion.
By the way, Komets just lost at QC 5-2. Blake, what does this do to your earlier thoughts about toughness and trades? I don't think we can go on without Galbraith, Drouin or Hunter. We must improve now.
Drouin and Hunter back next week for sure. You've got some good points, but I'm not sure what is available and what the price is. Even if they get one more very tough player, I don't think this team can win a playoff series using that style, so they have to find another way. There are other ways to win. The Komets did it in 2003 and Muskegon sure wasn't full of thugs last year. Right now it all depends on what they hear Monday on Lance. Luckily, there's still time to make a deal if anything decent is out there.
Lance lost his balance, it wasn't a dirty hit at all. If anything, he initiated the hit and then bounced back. Even he said so.
Blake, how the heck did Hukalo get a 2-minute penalty for diving and a 10 minute misconduct? Chase about jumped off the balcony on that call. What did Huk do, a backflip with a twist?
Hit somebody I got a bit mixed up typing my last post out. But my points none the less are there. My points being this. QC was down the whole game, no reason to engage in more physical play then what was needed. There would be no benefit to it. It would only bring about the possibility of more injuries and/or penalty minutes. The way the game was played worked. If indeed the high stick to Miller towards the end of the game was intentional then I would agree with you, someone needed to step up and make a point that no one will get away with doing something to intentionally hurt one of our players. I can't comment if it was deliberate or not. As far as the other slashing, checking, holding that was going on it went both ways. And the Komets got the better deal out of it. It all comes down to the score. I don't know what went wrong with tonight's game. That may have been a game that we needed to fight or be more agressive in I don't know. Also while we're on the subject I totally agree with you that come playoffs if the Komets don't step it up a notch physically, things may not happen for them. I think you nailed that on the head. What I don't agree with is that we needed to do anything different against QC last night then what we did. But it's old news now.
The Komets without a doubt cannot expect to see much playoff success if Galbraith's injury is serious. Especially the way he has been playing in the last few weeks. Save the "everyone is going to have to step up". Your getting the maximum production out of what we have as it is. There is not much more offense we can squeeze out of these 10 goal oranges. And I do not really buy into the "hurts chemistry" statement either because if your losing one of your top wingers and replacing him with anyone else, are you not disturbing line chemistry anyway? The only thing to do is wait and see what the results are, then explore options. Then comes the business side of it being whats out there vs. cost to the existing team. What worries me the most is that if Lance can come back by the playoffs, is Lance going to be Lance? The motormouthmay still be there, but will the production. He was on a roll.
Lance's injury didn't call for payback. Neither does 95% of the penalties called in a game. The same 2 or 3 guys whine and complain about fights and paybacks for damn near every high stick or slash or rough. Get real guys. What is Chaulk gets slashed and injured? What if St. Pierre gets ran over and injured. If it happens, it happens but its not going to happen simply because we do or do not have a heavyweight fighter skating around. If anything like that happens, the damage is already done. I am pretty confident in the guys we have that no matter who got jacked up, if it was intentional, something would be done. There is one thing the K's need to keep up and that is the intensity and the physical play. Don't confuse that with brawling it up. The guys played there asses off all night Friday, and if they keep playing physical like that we should compete. I still think we could use a few things but regardless, we'll compete.
Just one quick comment to agree with the things said on Noah Whyte. He has made some outstanding passes of late. Putting the puck right on the blade. That is something that I feel has been lacking. Giving the scorers more quality opportunities can do nothing but help! I like the trend I'm seeing. Go K's!!
Some inetresting points, Scoop, but I refer you to the Msuk-F playoff series of a couple of years ago when Lawmaster ran BOTH our goalies -- injuring them both and noone did a thing about it. Not to Lawmaster or returned the favor on their guy.
If we had any chance in that series, it was over when St. Pierre got hurt. Teams KNOW we won;t retaliate, so they feel (if that's how they want to play) that they have a free hand.
And, given the quality of some of the refs in this league (not all) you just can't expect them to always make the calls that deserve to be made.
This blows Puhalski's theory of turning the other cheeck and making them pay on the power play out of the water. Especially since our team turns the other cheek almost all the time and we are, what, minus 66 on powerplays awarded?
Explain how that happens.
Scoops, nice language first of all. You could probably make your point without the extra colorful words.
You can't say that our team has any heart when it comes to being tough out there. When Chaulk or St. Pierre get taken out on the ice, yes it will be too late. I am with Skate, no one respects this team out there on the ice. They have no tough bone about them. Look at the poor effort at Quad City and tonight. We could have put Quad City away this weekend, but we left them right in the middle of things. Toughness is both mental and physical. And we lack both. And yes, when a guy takes a shot at one of our players, someone should step up and let the other team know that it can't happen on our ice. Period. Enough playing like wimps. Are we playoff tough?
If it happened THIS season, maybe something is done, maybe not. Don't know and really I don't care. I am not worried about a "what if" scenario that has a .0001% chance of happening, let alone something repeating itself that happened a few years back.
Are we playoff tough? Sometimes. We still do a Jeckyl and Hyde routine from time to time.