WILMINGTON, Mass. — With just one goal and a minus-6 rating in four games, Flyers captain Mike Richards could be accused of doing a disappearing act in Boston's sweep of Philadelphia in the second round of the playoffs.
Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid certainly had trouble finding the Flyers forward, as a missed a check on Richards early in Game 2 ended McQuaid's series. McQuaid went to hit Richards at the left post of Boston's goal but sailed past and crashed headfirst into the end boards, suffering a sprained neck on the play.
"I didn't realize the puck was on the net and I thought [Richards] was going to be able to wrap [it around], so I was kind of coming in a little quicker than normal," McQuaid said after returning to practice on Monday at Ristuccia Arena. "It felt to me like he just disappeared. I thought I was going to be able to make some contact. Watching it, it looks a lot slower, but when it actually happened, it felt like it happened in a blink of an eye. There wasn't any time to react, to try to get my hands up or anything."
In that blink of an eye, McQuaid almost had a lot more than just his time in the Eastern Conference semifinals ended, but he wasn't too worried that he had done any permanent damage.
"Maybe a little bit [scared], but I was able to skate off on my own power," McQuaid said. "When you can do that and can move all your limbs, it takes away a lot of the worry. At the same time, it's obviously scary when you're dealing with a neck or head injury like that. I'm just thankful that things weren't worse."
McQuaid did get transported to a local Philadelphia hospital and missed the final two games against the Flyers.
"It was my first time in an ambulance," McQuaid said. "It definitely wasn't a fun experience. But when you're dealing with head or neck injuries you have to be cautious with it. I understood that, but I was pretty confident that it wasn't going to be anything too, too serious."
Apparently, it won't be serious enough to keep him out of the upcoming Eastern Conference finals against Tampa Bay.
"I'm feeling much better than I was," McQuaid said. "I feel like I'm progressing every day. It's the playoffs. It's the conference finals, so I feel great."
Bruins coach Claude Julien expects to have McQuaid available against Tampa Bay.
"I think he's getting much better and obviously today there wasn't much restriction on what he could or couldn't do," Julien said. "So we anticipate when the next series comes that he will be ready."
The Bruins could use him, as McQuaid has developed into a steady and dependable defenseman in his second postseason with the club, posting a plus-4 rating with three assists while averaging 12:47 in ice time, despite playing just 4:04 in the game he was injured.
In his absence, veteran Shane Hnidy filled in but played just 2:38 in Game 3 and 2:37 in Game 4. That put quite a burden on top four defensemen Zdeno Chara, Dennis Seidenberg, Johnny Boychuk and Andrew Ference.
His fellow defensemen will be glad to have McQuaid back to help ease that burden a bit and balance the workload on the blue line, and he is equally grateful to his teammates for winning without him and keeping the club's postseason run going long enough for him to get back in the lineup.
"I'm thankful I'm getting the opportunity to be back on the ice," McQuaid said. "To be in the situation the guys have put this team in right now, I'm just happy to be a part of it again."
