In what's becoming too regular of an occurrence, New York Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro will likely miss the rest of the season due to an injury.
According to Newsday's Arthur Staple, the 30-year old DiPietro, who's been on injured reserve with a groin injury since Dec. 4, will undergo hernia surgery next week, effectively ending his season. There's a chance he could return in early April, but given his medical history, what good would that do?
From Newsday (sub. required):
"This is something I thought would just heal up and go away, and instead it got more and more debilitating," a somber DiPietro told Newsday yesterday from Boston, where he will have the surgery. "I'm almost bionic at this point."
Since the 2008-09 season, DiPietro has played in just 47 games. Once this season ends, he'll have nine years remaining on the monumental 15-year deal he signed in 2006. DiPietro told Staple he doesn't plan to retire (and why would he when $40.5 million remains owed to him, according to CapGeek) and Islanders GM Garth Snow said he was confident the surgery would go well and he'd return before season's end.
This season, the injury history of the Islanders' crease has continued. Evgeni Nabokov missed time with a groin problem, DiPietro hasn't played since Dec. 3rd and Al Montoya has been out since just before Christmas with a concussion.
With over 200 man-games lost to injury, the health of the roster hasn't been limited to in goal as the Islanders sit last in the Eastern Conference with 36 points in a year that many expected the team to show some improvement.
Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_Leahy