Penguins’ Talbot to miss start of next season
It was Maxime Talbot, not Evgeni Malkin or Sidney Crosby, who was the star of Pittsburgh’s Game 7 Stanley Cup win over the Detroit Red Wings.
The fact that Talbot scored both goals in the 2-1 upset was even more impressive considering he was playing with a torn labrum in his left shoulder – hockey players are clearly the toughest athletes out there.
I’m sure both the Pens and Talbot will tell you that not missing any playoff time was well worth it, but now Talbot could miss the first few months of next season after having surgery on the shoulder this week. He will officially miss 4-5 months but is expected out until at least November; the season begins in early October – bet on 2009-10 futures at WagerWeb.com.
“Max has played with this problem for quite a while and we all agreed it was best for him to have the surgery at this time,” Penguins GM Ray Shero said in a statement. “Although he will miss training camp and the start of the season, the doctors expect him to make a complete recovery.”
Talbot had eight goals and five assists for 13 points in 24 playoff games, spending most of his time on Malkin’s right wing as Malkin won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP. Talbot, who also had two goals in the Penguins’ critical 4-2 Game 3 victory against the Red Wings, finished the 2008-09 season with 12 goals and 10 assists in 75 games.
The Penguins probably saw this coming, as they added forward Mike Rupp and re-signed forwards Bill Guerin, Ruslan Fedotenko and Craig Adams this offseason.
This will be the second year in a row that a key player missed substantial time to start the year. Star defenseman Sergei Gonchar missed the first 57 games of 2008-09 after requiring shoulder surgery due to an injury suffered in a preseason game. Pittsburgh did start last year slow without Gonchar but then took off around when it made a coaching change.
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