Kris Draper (upper-body injury) continued skating with the team Friday, but won't be available for Game 2 tonight. He returns to the doctor Monday for another checkup."The thing this reminds me of that no one has mentioned is the Franzen thing last year. Unexplained injury keeps Mule off the ice for an absurdly long time, leading to everyone from fans to Mike Babcock getting all antsy about where he was. Of course, I'm not getting too antsy, not with the way Helmer's playing, but there is some antsiness. I think. Somewhere.... We have to wonder what Drapes could possibly have that's keeping him out. Given that he's actually practicing, a potentially life-threatening bruise on his brain is unlikely. But something's up here.
The frustrating thing on my part is I can practice, go out and take warm-ups, but I'm not in the situation to go out there and play right now," Draper said. "I guess that's the best way to say it.
"It's a weird thing," Draper added. "It's not easy to sit here and talk about it and keep everyone in the dark, but that's the nature of the situation. It's just best for me to do that."
Of course, some are intimating that this is actually just Babcock keeping Drapes out with some lame excuse. The quote above doesn't really make one think that, but George Malik is using scare-quotes around the term upper-body injury. Drapes doesn't strike me as the kind of guy Babcock is anxious to get on the bench, but then again Chelios was a regular all of last season and then got the bench in the playoffs. So who knows.
This reminds me of something. One time I was playing NHL '99 or something -- it was like the first day I had gotten it -- and Kris Draper went down with an injury. The virtual trainers came out and walked the virtual Draper to the bench. Then a little text box came up and said: "Kris Draper - Lacerated Scrotum".
Ohhhh man. Just typing that makes me feel... deeply sad inside.
