With training camp slated to begin on Saturday, the Hurricanes have already been hit by the all-too-familiar injury bug. More specifically, the all-too-familiar-serious-leg-injury bug.
President Jim Rutherford announced today that right winger Justin WIlliams suffered a serious right ankle injury, and has torn his Achilles tendon. He is expected to have surgery to repair the rupture tomorrow at Rex Hospital in Cary. The doctors are saying he's going to miss four to six months of action.
Unfortunately, this brings back ghastly memories of last season for the injury-stricken Williams. He only played 37 games in 2007-08, missing time with a number of serious ailments. On December 20th, he tore his left ACL and MCL in a game against Florida. He had successful surgery six days later, and was out of the lineup until April 1st. In a cruel April Fool's joke, he played just four shifts totaling 3:48 in the game against Washington that night before being sidelined once again. This time, it was a back injury, and it would keep him watching from a VIP box for the remainder of the season.
Williams assumedly worked hard this off-season in preparation for a healthy return to the lineup. But here we are, three days away from the start of practice, and we have already lost his explosive potential for half a year.
Fortunately for the team, they are quite familiar with playing without Williams, so they should be able to slide into their roles without too much trouble. It goes without saying though that Williams' presence will be missed a great deal. For the Hurricanes, he represents a strong-skating winger with a nose for the puck and consistent performance in the clutch. The health problems of he and Matt Cullen were at the very core of the Hurricanes' failure to make it to the postseason last year. Once again, they'll have to find a way to manage without one of their best forwards for an extended period of time.
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