According to the New York Post, Chris Drury played the entire first round series against the Capitals with a broken hand.
That’s because, as he told The Post, the captain had played the first round with a broken right hand he sustained late in the April 9 victory over the Flyers in the Garden finale that clinched a playoff berth.
Drury, who sustained a non-displaced fracture when hit by a shot, missed the season finale in Philadelphia then the opening game against the Caps. He returned, but with now understandable limited effectiveness — unable to shoot or pass with authority, unable to play a hard game.
“It was frustrating, obviously,” said Drury, who scored the winner in Game 4, but finished the series with only that one point and a minus-five while getting just an average of 13:31 of ice. “And losing this series is obviously frustrating and disappointing, and maybe it hasn’t all sunk in yet.
“But when think back to that losing streak we had in February and where we were then, I think we can be proud of how far we came under Torts [coach John Tortorella].”
Drury played the final two games of last year’s second-round playoff series against the Penguins with broken ribs.


I don’t think it is hard to see that Drury is a tough player and that he’ll gut it out through injuries, but I somewhat have to question whether the team was truly better with him playing injured over someone else playing healthy.
Given how it all turned out, I’m not certain that they made the right decision to play him with the broken hand.