Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

In a sport known for tough guys, there seems to be a surprising number of injuries this season.

Roberto Luongo is one of the many Canucks who have been injured this season.

It is what separates our athletes from everyone else's - the ability to play through pain.

Let's face it: Is it a moment of unspoken national pride every time some wimpy basketball or soccer player gets a little cut on the chin and calls it a night. While in the next highlight you'll see a Canadian hockey player shaking off a 105-mph slapper, or getting stitched up in the runway behind the bench, because the travel time to and from the trainer's table might cost him a shift.

But somehow, headlines across the NHL map this fall have overwhelmingly concerned injuries, predictions on recovery time, and whether or not Reg Dunlop would play, sit, or be a "game-time decision."

Sportsnet.ca endeavoured to find some perspective on an apparent rash of injuries this fall, and what we found was that the Vancouver Canucks (109 man-games lost) and the Edmonton Oilers (105) lead the way in man-games lost to injury. Tampa Bay is healthiest at just seven, Calgary's next at 15, and Anaheim can't blame its lousy start on anything but their own poor play. They've lost only 20 man-games this season.

But perspective? Alas, there is little to be found.

The National Hockey League head office has abandoned the task of chronicling man-games lost to injury and illness, assigning the impossibly subjective task to the 30 teams to track. Their reasons are justified: it is simply too difficult to know who is hurt, how badly or when a player is a healthy scratch or resting something, etc.

And with Swine flu in the air this season, the task grows even more complex.

So we can't give you comparisons to last season on this date, but we can tell you that only six clubs have been luckier on the injury front than the Toronto Maple Leafs, who had lost just 33 man-games prior to their recent 3-2 loss in Ottawa.

(Sportsnet.ca scoured game notes to find the man-games-lost stat. Therefore, all numbers represent a team's number prior to their last game played.)

Imagine Toronto's record if they hadn't hopped the queue and got their H1N1 shots ahead of nearly everybody else in Ontario?

Meanwhile the Calgary Flames, who deserved all the criticism they received in Alberta for doing the same thing, haven't been touched by the flu bug. They list one man-game lost - Dustin Boyd - to "illness", among their 15 games.

Let that be a lesson to Edmonton, Colorado (83 games) and Pittsburgh (73): it pays to jump the line in front of those babies and elderly folks. The Oilers lie just 300 km up Highway 2 and report 12 games lost to the flu.

Then the team announced on Thursday that Mike Comrie has mono.

(O-M-G!!! Does that mean the Hilary Duff tour is in jeopardy???)

"You don't want to use injuries as an excuse," Sheldon Souray said on Wednesday, before putting his cards in the table. "But it is a factor. It can be a big factor."

It has for Edmonton and Vancouver, who average five men out per game. Think about it. That's a quarter of their roster for every game this season, and when Roberto Luongo and Daniel Sedin are two of those injured players, it's like losing four third- or-fourth liners.

Edmonton lost all of its gritty players at the same time. If the team got any softer, it would have melted.

Detroit hasn't lost too many man-games - 52, just above the league average of about 50 - but 16 of those have been due to Johan Franzen blowing out his knee. He's out 4-6 months after surgery, and now Val Filppula (wrist, eight weeks) and the useful Jason Williams (leg, eight weeks) join him on the long-term I.R.

Nobody cries a tear for the Red Wings, of course. But you've got to feel for Montreal GM Bob Gainey, who took a huge risk when he made the biggest one-summer free agency commitment of all time this summer.

Then his season began by losing his best player, defenceman Andrei Markov, in the very first game. Brian Gionta has been by far the best of the incoming free agents in Montreal, with 8-5-13 in 19 games. But he's got a busted foot now, and is on the shelf long-term. Hal Gill is hurt too.

Montreal's 64 games rank below Pittsburgh's 73, but the Pens still went into Thursday's game at Ottawa missing seven regulars. Sergei Gonchar was expected to return, but not starting defencemen Kris Letang (shoulder), Brooks Orpik (lower body), Alex Goligoski (lower body) and Jay McKee (finger infection).

Did injury derail Alex Ovechkin's run at 50 goals in 50 games? He was right here, with 14 goals in the Washington Capitals first 14 games this season. But then he banged up his shoulder and missed six games.

Who would have thought the surprising Colorado Avalanche would be second in the league with 83 man-games lost? Nearly all of their injuries have been to secondary players, with all their core guys and goalie Craig Anderson staying healthy.

You think the Blue Jackets are hard up for cash? Columbus sells its injury reports, so according to the OhioHealth Injury Report - our motto, we pull the plug on Wolverines - Columbus has lost 61 games.

In Los Angeles, Ryan Smyth is out for a month now, with that ol' upper body injury.

You can just hear Kings fans wondering, "Why couldn't it have been Michal Handzus?"