Bad Year Gets Worse as Kloucek suffers torn ACL and MCL

By pbadmin
The Rangers were having a bad year as it was. The last thing they needed was for one of their very few bright spots to be shut down for a long while. Rookie defenseman Tomas Kloucek suffered a torn ACL and MCL in a game Sunday in Atlanta. The injury occurred when Kloucek tried to hit Thrashers forward Ray Ferraro. Kloucek has been a pleasant surprise for the Rangers this year. At just 21 years old, he has shown the ability to play great defensive hockey and has become a physical force to be reckoned with. The play of Kloucek along with players like Mike Mottau, Peter Smrek, Dale Purinton and other young defensemen has been one of the best stories for the Rangers in 2000-2001. Because Kloucek’s injury happened so late into the season, doctors say it is likely his rehab will continue well, into next season. Kloucek who played in 43 games with the Rangers this year, had a goal and 4 assists for 5 points. He also rang up 74 penalty minutes and was a minus 3. Minus 3 isn’t all that bad on a team that has been playing defensive hockey like the Rangers have. All the Rangers can do now is pray that nothing like this happens to anyone else in their final few games, that more or less are meaningless. Then they can sit through a long summer and play golf or whatever it is an overpaid hockey player does. Then hopefully with players like Pavel Brendl and Jamie Lundmark in the lineup and a healthy Tomas Kloucek they can get back to the playoffs, were the team with the league’s highest payroll belongs.