With Taylor Hall suffering a concussion as the season wound down, many suggested that he be shut down for the season to prevent any further injury. Today, those people got their wish, but in an unlikely manner.
The Edmonton Oilers have announced that Taylor Hall will not return this season; instead he’ll have surgery on his left shoulder.
Here’s what the Oilers’ official Twitter feed had to say, along with the prognosis directly from general manager Steve Tambellini:
Hall (labral shoulder surgery) will not return to the #Oilers lineup this season, according to GM Tambellini
"Recovery time will be between five and six months, so our hope is that Taylor will be ready for the start of next season." – Tambellini
Going for a midpoint between five and six months puts Hall’s return at some point early in September, likely just prior to the start of training camp.
For those wondering when this injury occurred, the Oilers’ feed also included a quote from Hall on the length of time since the injury occurred:
"Four years now … I injured it in junior and it’s been wearing away." – Taylor Hall when asked when he first injured his shoulder
It seems highly plausible that the Ryan Wilson hit shown above – a hit that cost Hall seven games back in December – exacerbated the situation.
Naturally, the question now will turn to why Hall was allowed to play this year with an injury, but I’m not at all sure that things are so clear-cut. The simple fact of the matter is that NHL players play through pain, and they play through injury. To know whether Hall’s specific injury should have been dealt with via surgery immediately, one would need to know what the risk of injuring it worse was. We don’t have that information. Without that information, it seems only fair to assume that the Oilers were doing what every other team does whenever possible: delaying surgery until the off-season. At this point, I’m not close to ready to criticize the medical staff; there simply isn’t enough information here to have an opinion one way or the other.
And while this isn’t good news, it could be far worse. Hall’s getting a nagging problem looked at, and he should be ready to return to the Oilers next season. This will cost him his chance to represent Canada at the World Championships, but it’s probably the best decision.
Related Posts at Oilers Nation
- Hall out again? (on this same, nagging, injury)
- Did the Oilers ignore NHL concussion rules when they allowed Theo Peckham to continue playing?
- Did the Oilers have bad injury luck last year?
- Taylor Hall: The silver lining
- The durable and the injury-prone
Oh, he hurt his shoulder 4 years ago? CLEARLY THIS IS ALL THE OILERS FAULT FORCING A PLAYER TO PLAY TWO FULL SEASONS OF JUNIOR WITH A HURT SHOULDER!!
Because it’s not like Taylor Hall is a savage who only wants to go out and play hockey and win games. And it clearly bothered him so much that he was able to play 126 games over the last two seasons. So, I mean, he must have been complaining to the training staff everyday about how badly he was hurt. And, like JW said, it’s not like pretty much every player in the league is nursing some kind of injury at any given point in the season. No, no, this is clearly something that ONLY happens with the Edmonton Oilers because they run some kind of slave labour camp where they force young men to go out and play professional hockey. HOW DARE THEY!
*Face palms so hard his eyebrows stick to his hand*
If only I could prop this comment multiple times. The amount of hand-wringing going on here at ON is embarrassing.
Props x 1000
One of the finest comments in the history of commenting, the only thing I would add is …THE OILERS ARE SO STUPID FOR DRAFTING A PLAYER WHO GETS INJURED, NO OTHER TEAM WOULD DRAFT PLAYERS THAT GET HURT!
Yeah the only thing I would fault them for is perhaps not doing as much due diligence before drafting him.
But I mean, when he comes back from something like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BMQuNfOzrE you have to think he’s a little resilient.
And like I said if he’s not complaining about an injury, and by all accounts looks like he’s fine when he’s playing, I don’t think too many red flags were going up.
OMG! Jeanshorts, thank you for this.
I am typing with my left hand, as my right palm is now permanently stuck to my face.
Oilers are the only team that gets injured. Remember that hockey fans.
Haha that’s awesome!!
In honour of this post, I just cut off my Levis 501s. I’m gonna be rocking those all summer long.
Oohhhhhh welcome to “Aired Out Genitals” country my friend! You’re not going to regret this.
Thank you ! I will represent well.
Any tips on leg grooming?? Do you shave, pluck, wax? Or do you just let the manliness flow??
Taylor needs to get that mean streak thing going into next season. Perhaps even take a short suspension or two and buy himself some room. He’ll last alot longer being the hammer rather than the nail. The Oilers don’t need to provide him with a bodyguard, he needs to be his own bodyguard.
Remember at the beginning of the season, (I can’t remember which opposing player) took a bit of a run at Smyth, and Smyth “put his hands up to protect himself” giving said player the butt end of his stick to the face?
Hall needs to learn some of that.
Wax&Q…I’ve watched the Ryan Wilson CRUSHES Hall vid a few times now and with the Sarich hit still pretty vivid in my mind I’m of the opinion that this whole career TH is gambling with needs to be somehow lengthened by some poundage both on his body but between his ears as well…the Dorsett fight was indeed just bad judgement leading to bad luck and so went his ‘first’ injury…i’m gonna call the Wilson hit bad judgement again but this time Hall’s compete level got in his way…y’don’t go into a corner or toward a corner with that much speed and no working plan of escape unless you’re gambling…y’also don’t take the big swooping turn on your first shift at so high a speed as you spill yourself into the boards trying to corral the crappy pass from a cold crappy Dman…oh yes at the same time as Cory Sarich pretends to be pinching when all the while he’s head hunting to quiet a capacity crowd in the opening moments of a BOA…I’ve only seen [edit] Hall play in person once and I was very impressed as to how he’s made it this far without many more injuries simply because he plays too wide open and he’s been studied enough now that the Sarich hit was a planned played via video of all his tendencies…Taylor can’t be small and be this fast in the wrong places on the ice…sure he could put up his hands when he’s about to get hit but how ??? he’s always going full speed when he gets hurt and how could he get his hands up that fast anyway …again his speed is killing him…until he matures, bulks up and he begins to think his game in better terms all i can do is pray for his safety…be well TH be well
Hey, I agree that he puts himself in those positions, and on the Wilson and Sarich hit (and Doughty hit for that matter) there is really no way to get his hands up. I mean in general, though. Even some bumps along the boards, so that it makes opposing players think a little bit.
Taylor, as well as Hemsky, play the game with little/no fear. Hall has to change or he could head down the same path that 83 has in recent yrs. If guys are going to have cracks at him next season, he has to atleast make them come through his Easton first.
I wish people whose only medical qualifications are “I had an MRI once” would please refrain from posting their diagnoses and prognoses on the intricacies of shoulder labrum surgery – you just sound goofy.
I had an MRI once, I think I’ll have tacos for lunch tomorrow.
Some people are interested in what labrum surgery actually means for a player.
Essentially, anything to do with the labrum is finicky because there are levels of severity based on the damage. Professional athletes can find labrum injuries (rotator cuff usually) inhibit their range of fluid motion due to tears in the muscles. Over time these injuries worsen and can lead to pain, loss of strength, and further inflammation.
It sounds like Hall will be getting the more invasive of the surgeries where the surgery is fully opened, and a more secure anchoring of the torn tissue can be achieved. This is typical of sports injuries because the damage is usually more severe.
Minor damage surgery can be done using arthroscopics.
Though there is an increased risk of scar tissue and infection in an open surgery, the beneficial effects are much better in the long run and an athlete can expect an injury to heal fully.
In other words, the injury Hall suffered in minor hockey might not have gotten worse, but did. There is no reason to think that this surgery will not completely heal the injury given the great doctors around today for athletes.
At last, some (un)common sense. Thank you.