Adam Fox admits to knee injury setback during Rangers’ postseason run
It took multiple lines of questions before Adam Fox revealed anything about what was clearly ailing him during the playoffs.
Confirmation that he aggravated the same knee injury — originally sustained on a collision with the Hurricanes’ Sebastian Aho that sidelined him for 10 games in early November, on an eerily similar play with the Capitals’ Nick Jensen in Round 1 — basically had to be pried out of the 26-year-old defenseman.
“It was a little bit of a tough situation,” he said. “When you’re on the ice, whether you’re 100 percent, 70 percent, 50 percent, you’re not going to make the excuse of, ‘Oh I didn’t play up to the standard because of this and that.’ I think everyone’s always a little banged up this time of year.”
Fox, who was limited to eight assists in the postseason, said that he still had to have his exit physical to go through before he finds out whether his knee will require any further attention this offseason.
As is the case in most NHL team’s locker cleanout day, several other injuries were revealed.
Ryan Lindgren, Fox’s defensive partner, cracked his rib in Game 6 of the second round against the Hurricanes.
That’s why Lindgren stayed off the ice during the few days the Rangers practiced between the second and third rounds, but it was ultimately just a matter of playing through the pain.
Additionally, Jimmy Vesey confirmed what most knew the moment he absorbed that body hit from the Panthers’ Ryan Lomberg in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final. He suffered a separated shoulder, but it will not require surgery.
The plan is for Vesey to stick around to start this summer, work with trainers and do some rehab.
“It was tough to miss the last bit of the year,” Vesey said. “Obviously, as a team we start in September and it’s a long regular season and a long journey to get to the playoffs. It was brutal to not be out there with my teammates. … Everything’s fine, it’s going to recover, but unfortunately I just needed some more time to get back into a game.
“When you’re up 2-1 in the series, everything’s like, ‘Take your time.’ And then it flips and you’re facing elimination. As a player you want to be out there. I wanted to try. I was willing to do whatever I had to do to try to play, but trainers and coaches decided that it probably wasn’t worth the risk of me further injuring it.”
Captain Jacob Trouba revealed the lower-body injury that kept him out 11 games in March was a broken ankle, of which a “kidney-sized bean chunk” came off.
Since it wasn’t a weight-bearing bone, he said, walking and everyday movement wasn’t an issue.
Once he put skates on and started pushing it in different angles, however, that’s when it did not feel good.
Working his way back from the injury was clearly difficult and that probably played a minor role in his struggles this postseason.
“It’s not an excuse or anything by any means, I was ready to play,” Trouba said. “It was an interesting one to play with. It was different than other injuries I’ve come back from in the past.”
