There’s strong rumours going around the Ed Courtenay is playing hurt. Rumours strong enough that it is pretty much common knowledge. He’s been sitting out of games, keeping himself on the bench and up until Thursday night not even taking a regular shift. The problem with this is that it is showing throughout the rest of the team. With Ed Courtenay playing hurt – The Belfast Giants play hurt.

You don’t need to have a keen eye to notice the kind of game Courtenay brings to the ice. He has the vision on the ice that most players in the league can only dream of and it feeds off on his line-mates. I’ve blogged about this a number of times over the season about Ed and his line mates – no matter who he has paired himself wth the player has got the goals and looked like one of the best in the league… He started the year with Scott Cameron and Ryan Smith and even though Smith was released early, both players scored for fun as Ed assist numbers soared. The same happened when Leigh Jamieson was on the line and even Carlyle Lewis.

When Pete Campbell arrived at the team they stuck up one of the best partnerships in the league with Campbell alongside Courtenay. Campbell was scoring points for fun with Ed continuing to score an assist at almost one per game. Scott Cameron had been taken off the Courtenay line when Campbell arrived and had been struggling to score ever since. As Courtenay approached 40-years of age there seemed to be nothing slowing the man down until a game against Manchester when he took a hit into the boards from Brett Cloutier that injured the Giants player-coach. Although he continued to play games he has not looked the same. He has been slower to pick himself off the ice and he seems to be carrying some kind of injury and the points production has decreased.

It is, therefore, no surprise that Giants results have went south. Unfortunately I don’t have access to the Giants medical room so I don’t know how long Ed is going to be carrying the injury, but with no time to sit up and rest it with the playoffs coming up you get the worry that this injury will go with him all the way into the playoffs. If that is the case then the Giants are going to need another player to show some leadership and step it up and take on the primary scoring roll in place of Ed.

The only other option is for Ed to realise the Giants are in the playoffs and to sit up, rest up and come back healthy for the playoffs having sacrificed a higher finish in the league standings. That’s not likely to happen because as player-coach as as a player with a lot of pride, Ed feels a responsibility to be out there on the field of battle with his players come what may.

On the subject: Ed Courtenay | ALL SUBJECTS |

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