Saturday marked Tyler Seguin's first game on the sideliens with a cut Achilles tendon, but he’s already planning his return. Seguin said he “doesn’t picture” himself missing Game 1 of the post-season.
Stars winger Tyler Seguin suffered a gruesome injury when he suffered a 15 percent cut to his Achilles tendon in a contest this past Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, but the 24-year-old is already making it clear that he’s not keen on missing any post-season action.
Given a 3-4 week timeline for return, Seguin told the Dallas Morning News’ Mike Heika that a playoff return is the target following surgery to repair the sliced tendon.
Seguin’s injury occurred during the dying seconds of the March 17 contest against the Lightning when he was engaged with Tampa Bay defenseman Anton Stralman. Stralman’s skate clipped Seguin’s right ankle, but the winger managed to play the remaining 22 seconds of the period, stopping and starting before the game ended.
Seguin told Heika he knew “right away” what had happened but he began to worry when he saw blood on his hand after he checked out the injury following the game’s final seconds. Seguin said he was more worried once he got his skate off, but the news actually wasn’t all that bad.
“It was an unlucky injury, and I’m fortunate and happy it’s not more prolonged,” Seguin told Heika.
If the cut had been much deeper, Seguin would likely be facing more time on the sidelines, but the 3-4 week timeline actually puts him close to the start of the post-season. Three weeks from his Friday surgery would actually line up perfectly with the Stars’ final game of the regular season — possible, but not entirely likely — that would be a big break for Dallas. However, Seguin and the Stars will get a break in that they could have two or more days between their final regular season tilt and Game 1 of any playoff series.
Dallas was successful in their first outing without Seguin — a 3-0 victory over the New York Islanders Saturday — but he’s one of the game’s best scorers and having him back in time for the first game of the opening round would give the Stars a boost. Seguin had 33 goals and 73 points before falling injured and he was scoring at a better than point-per-game rate.