Stumpel’s Toe Causes Scratch

First Jozef Stumpel put his foot into a skate Saturday morning.

“It hurt,” he said.

Then he pulled his foot out of the skate.

“That was worse,” he said.

Stumpel, who suffered a broken small toe on his right foot Thursday when he was hit by a shot launched by teammate Mathieu Schneider was scratched for Saturday night’s game against Tampa Bay.

“I could have played if they ‘froze’ it,” he said, referring to a procedure in which the injured body part is numbed to allow the player on the ice. Once highly criticized, “freezing” is now used frequently, when doctors judge that no further damage can be incurred by playing. Peers and management encourage it as team-oriented act of selflessness.

“I don’t know about it,” Stumpel said, expressing his fears. “What if it [numbed] my whole leg? I just don’t know. I’ll probably end up doing it, but right now [the toe] is too painful.”

Stumpel’s place on a line with Ziggy Palffy and Bryan Smolinski was taken by Eric Belanger, who was moved from the fourth line.

By midway through the first period, Palffy was also among the missing because of what was called a strained hamstring. His spot was taken by several players, most often by Nelson Emerson.