Flames Hockey Guy Rasmus Andersson Played A Dozen Games With A Broken Fibula

Sixteen NHL teams get their playoff slates underway over the holiday weekend, while 16 others are clearing out their locker rooms for a summer of golfing.

But as teams get ready to go their separate ways for the summer, we usually get updates on nagging injuries that guys were playing with, and Calgary Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson cemented his Hockey Guy status by playing with a broken fibula.

And not just for a night or two. He did it for a dozen games.

Hockey teams are usually pretty vague about injuries during the season, sticking to "upper-body" and "lower-body" designations. One big reason is that if they came out and said, "This fella has a bum wrist," guess who's going to be taking slashes to the wrist all next game.

So maybe that's why the Flames kept Andersson's leg injury under wraps, but it was clear enough that he was dealing with something that a reporter asked about it.

"You think I was playing through something?" Andersson said with a smirk.  "I broke my fibula against Seattle."

That would have been on March 25 in a 4-3 OT win over the Kraken.

"So I played the last — what? — 12 games with a broken fibula," he said. "So that felt great."

That's nuts, no matter the circumstances, but the Flames came pretty close to making the postseason, just missing out in the last week. 

You've got to assume that Andersson fought through the pain for the playoff push, but what would he have done had they made it? Just keep playing through it, I suppose.

What a warrior. An A++ hockey guy.

Well, on the bright side, Andersson — who put up 31 points (11G, 20A) this season in 81 games — will have a few months to make sure that fibula of his gets back in working order before camp starts at the end of the summer.