Fractured digit equals heartbreak for Kostka
BOSTON— Mike Kostka raises his right hand, stares miserably at the index digit swathed in splint and bandages. “It’s a tough break. No pun intended.” No, there’s nothing to laugh about, not even ruefully. Them’s the, er, breaks that turned the Leaf defenceman’s first NHL playoff game ever into likely his last NHL playoff game of 2013, barring a quickie trip to Lourdes or a series of miracles extending Toronto’s fortunes deep into the post-season. On Wednesday morning, Kostka was nervous about seeking confirmation from coach Randy Carlyle that he would indeed dress for the opener against Boston until urged by a reporter to go on, go ahead. Later, sprinting for the team bus after practice, he gave a grinning thumbs-up. Now, alas, he’s been fingered. The fracture occurred in the second period of Game 1, on a benignlooking sequence when Kaspars Daugavins shot the puck into Toronto’s end. “It was just a dump-in,” Kostka recalls. “It seemed like an innocent play but it hit me in the right place, or the wrong place.” Probably sideways in the indentation of the padding on his glove, but it all happened so fast that Kostka can’t be certain. What he knows is that it hurt like a bugger. His flinching recoil was apparent to anybody watching. Right away, Kostka knew something was dreadfully wrong. “You get hit a lot in games and so you can kind of tell the difference between a bruise and something worse. You’re hoping that it isn’t that bad, you try to convince yourself it’s not.”
It was mind over matter to the extent that Kostka gutted it out and stayed in the game. “It was painful but I tried to ignore it.”
To be triaged off the roster is soulcrushing.
“It’s heartbreaking,” says the Etobicoke-born Kostka. “It’s been a really exciting year for me and then, the emotions of being a part of the first (Leaf) team in nine years to be in the playoffs. Then, the second period you play, you get an injury and can’t continue.”
The break is clear through, between the knuckle and the base of the finger. Closer to the tip, Kostka figures he would have been able to cope with the pain; at least the finger would be quasi-functional. At the moment, it’s pretty much a stiff, dead thing.
“It’s the worst finger possible to break.”
It’s not a question of waiting until the break heals, which could take up to six weeks. “It’s about what point can I play with it. At what point can I use it and just try to manage the pain?”
Go finger, I mean figure.