First Shift \ud83c\udfd2<\/p>\n
Adversity has been a familiar linemate to Seguin in his 16-year NHL career.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why Thursday\u2019s 1,000th regular season game at Tampa Bay is such a big deal.<\/p>\n
Seguin, 33, should have passed this milestone years ago. He started his career as an 18-year-old after being selected second overall in the 2010 NHL Draft. He chewed up games and spewed out points early in his career, winning the Stanley Cup with Boston in his rookie season and then becoming one of the top scorers for the Stars after a trade to Dallas.<\/p>\n
But along the way, injuries started to pile up. He had his Achilles tendon cut by a skate blade in 2016. He had a couple of knee surgeries, along with repair work to his hip and groin in 2020, as well. Then, last year, after flying out of the gate in the first 20 games, he decided to have surgery to repair his other hip.<\/p>\n
That put him on long-term injured reserve until April. He returned to play the regular season finale and 18 playoff games, and he has looked great since, but the battle has been difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows how good a player he is in that he is able to adapt after many years in the league,\u201d said defenseman Esa Lindell<\/a>.<\/p>\n While coach Glen Gulutzan added: \u201cYou watch him even this year and he\u2019s playing center, wing, on different lines, he\u2019s been a huge help. At a time when [Benn] is out, he\u2019s taken a big leadership role on the team, and he\u2019s really helping us push through some things.\u201d<\/p>\n Benn has been out since late September after surgery to repair a collapsed lung. Duchene \u2013 a long time Seguin linemate \u2013 has been in and out after taking a high hit in the third game of the season. Seguin has then had to bounce from wing on a line with Hintz and Mikko Rantanen<\/a> to center for Adam Erne<\/a> and Colin Blackwell<\/a>. And he has been effective in pretty much every game.<\/p>\n He has 5 points (3 goals, 2 assists) in 10 games, which is less than he wants, but the team also is 6-3-1 over the span.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can be a good thing,\u201d Seguin said of the adversity. \u201cYou look at the last few weeks, and I\u2019m not necessarily putting up points, but these are the times where in the past I might be getting down on myself and now every day I\u2019m happy to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n Seguin said he\u2019s finding joy in little things like playing cards on the plane or hanging out with teammates. That hammers home just how important 1,000 games is to the veteran forward.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s cool now,\u201d Seguin said of the accomplishment. \u201cSome things that have happened over the [past] handful of years. It\u2019s nothing I never thought about before, but it\u2019s cool to be there.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just from different moments over the years there were times when I wasn\u2019t fully locked in that I would be back or that I would have anything left,\u201d he said. \u201cNow, just to be healthy and contribute in different ways, that\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First Shift \ud83c\udfd2 Adversity has been a familiar linemate to Seguin in his 16-year NHL career. That\u2019s why…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-nhl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}