In the car on the way to a hockey game a couple of years ago I recounted to my issue the astonishment of a local writer covering the new hockey club in Miami in 1996. It was during the playoffs as I recall. A Florida "Panther" player had taken a puck to the mouth. Between periods the press box was given the customary player availability update for the next period. "Bill Lindsay [just picked a name], puck to face, lost three teeth, 12 stitches. Will return." "Hockey players are just tougher than basketball players," the kids said, and I agreed.

Just now I saw this headline:

Sean Couturier plays through torn MCL, posts hat trick in Flyers' loss

(ESPN)

There is right now a professional basketball player, a damned good one too, Kawhi Leonard,who is out of action with "right thigh tendinopathy" which is "inflammation of the tendon of the large muscle on the front of the thigh (quadriceps) just before it attaches to the kneecap (patella)." Kawhi Leonard is out for the season with inflammation of the tendon. He has missed 77 games.

"Philadelphia Flyers center Sean Couturier added another chapter to the book on hockey player toughness, scoring three goals and assisting on two others -- while playing on a torn MCL."

Couturier tore the MCL on Thursday. He missed that night's game, Game 4.

 "But with his team down 3-1 in the series, he returned and scored the game winner in Game 5 on Friday..." 

He played on it the day after he tore it. Then played today, scoring a hat trick.

There is right now another player in professional basketball, used to be an MVP too, Derrick Rose, who missed 99 games for a tear of his ACL in 2012. Derrick missed 257 games while with the Chicago "Bulls" from 2009-2016. Some of the injuries that kept Derrick out those 257 games are:

sprained left wrist 2010, 4 games.

stiff neck 2010, 1 game.

sprained big toe 2012, 1 game.

sprained big toe again 2012, 4 games.

"lower back issues" 2012, 5 games.

"groin injury" 2012, 12 games. [Bad year for Derrick, 2012.]

sprained right ankle 2012, 1 game.

right foot injury (unspecified) 2012, 3 games.

"rest," 2012, 1 game.

torn ACL 2012, 99 games.

sore right hamstring 2013, 1 game.

torn right meniscus 2013, 76 games.

sprained both ankles 2014, 2 games.

sprained both ankles again 2014, 2 games.

torn right meniscus 2015, 20 games.

"overall body soreness 2016, 1 game.

Alright, enough. Hockey players are just tougher than basketball players.