Injury news proves to be bad break for Brouwer
NASHVILLE, TENN. Troy Brouwer’s right eye is slightly discoloured. There’s not enough black and purple to make a person cringe while looking at him, but just the right amount for his young daughter Kylie to proudly tell her teachers at school what happened.
Internally, the Calgary Flames winger’s cheek area is broken in three different places. And that’s just the right amount for him to require a full cage to skate with the team and enough to keep him out of the lineup for the short term.
“The face has taken a beating over the years,” the 32-year-old said following a solo skate Thursday morning a head of Calgary’s clash with the Nashville Predators. “That was by far the worst. I’ve had a few high sticks that have broken teeth or cracked teeth. I’ve taken a shot in my jaw, too, but it didn’t break my jaw. Only a handful of times, maybe.
“Knock on wood, it doesn’t happen as often as you might think.” But when it does, ouch. Brouwer broke his cheekbone in three places on the first shift of a Feb. 8 game at New Jersey. It was a deflection off the glass (he thinks) or directly to his face (maybe, he said) and there wasn’t a lot of time to react.
After his 12-second shift, Brouwer left briefly to be assessed by team doctor Ian Auld and after given the green light, he returned and logged 11:55 of ice time.
It was only afterward that he found out the news.
“We didn’t think it was that bad,” Brouwer said. “The doc looked at me and everything looked structurally fine. It didn’t hurt. I went through all of the protocol and everything. No concussion or anything like that. At that time, we thought, ‘OK, it’s going to be a gnarly black eye. It didn’t seem like it was as bad as it was.’”
That was until the X-rays arrived and showed one break by his cheekbone and a CT scan showed one in his sinus cavity and another in his orbital bone. As such, he was placed on injured reserve retroactive to the Feb. 8 game, a 3-2 Flames win over the Devils.
Skating isn’t a problem. Brouwer has been able to practise with the team this week on the road, starting Monday in Boston.
But sleeping is another story. “It’s a bit of a problem,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m a slide sleeper, so sleeping on one side all night gets uncomfortable. I’m learning to sleep on my back, which is better for me.”
The real bummer is having to sit out and watch while his team battles to hold onto its spot in the Pacific Division, which continued against the Predators, ending a sixgame road swing for the Flames.
There’s no timeline for his return, however, they’ll know more when the Flames return to Calgary.
For now, Brouwer is in a waitand-see mode.
“Now you kind of know what fans go through, almost,” Brouwer said. “When you’re in the game, you’re playing. You’re playing hard and you’re doing everything you can do to win the game.
“But when you’re just watching, you’re helpless. you want to be in there.”