When Kristian Huselius first came into the league with the Florida Panthers in 2001 he quickly made an impact scoring 23 and 20 goals in his first two seasons. For those of you who remember, he was swift, had a nice soft touch, and a very good wrist shot. For those of you who don’t care to remember, he also appeared to avoid the “dirty” areas of the ice. Near the net, in the corners, and wherever there was traffic. This drove head coach Mike Keenan absolutely nuts at the time, as Keenan knew that Krissy had talent, and tried a number of different ways to get it out of him.
Finally in 2005 the Panthers traded Huselius to the Calgary Flames for defenseman Steve Montador and Dustin Johner. A year later Huselius scored 34 goals, and followed that with 25 while playing again for Keenan in Calgary. In 2008 Huselius signed as a free agent with the Columbus Blue Jackets and has put up a total of 58 goals in 187 games. He missed part of the 2010-2011 season with a knee injury, and missed all but two games in 2011-2012 both a pectoral injury, and with what is now being called a “broken groin”.
Krissy is blaming the Columbus Blue Jackets for rushing him back from his pectoral injury, claiming that he wasn’t ready for action. He was quoted as saying this:
“I had not a single practice with the team before coming back,” Huselius said. “I had one game to get acclimated. Then I went into (the next) NHL game and played 21 minutes. I think they acted wrong against me. My groin broke in the second game. I had not built up muscle mass and was not fit or ready to play.
A more detailed desription of the events that took place can be found here in Puck Rakers.
Now I don’t know about you but this sounds like sour grapes from a player who didn’t perpare himself well enough prior to his return. Secondly, what does the groin injury have to do with the pectoral injury? I’m no anatomy expert, but last time I checked (back in my college days), the pectoral is upper body (shoulder) and the groin is lower. If Huselius was trusted by the Blue Jackets brass to workout and perpare himself on his own with no supervision that’s one story. However if Huselius, who no matter what, has talent, didn’t invest the time and make the effort to get himself in game shape, then he has no one to blame but himself.
The article indicates that Huselius is expected to finish his career in the Swedish Elite league. Which more and more sounds to me like the place to go for players that can’t hack it here in the NHL.
Based on this turn of events, and going back to his original entrance into the NHL with the Panthers, I think Keenan nailed in on the head in evalutating Krissy’s performance and tryng t0 kick start his career. Or maybe it was in the groin.
Thanks for reading. We welcome your comments and opinions.
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