You are totally right, Blackburn was forced to be a two-blocker guy with the Victoria Salmon Kings of the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) in 2004-2005 before retiring. You can see the stats at Hockey DB – Dan Blackburn.

For the dislocated shoulder, it was my second dislocation to the same shoulder, so it was already slacked and for the moment it is not hurting that much. I was prescribed rest, rest and rest and the very hardcore kind of Advil in case of pain, so I’m pretty sure that’s not helping you that much. No “hardcore lifting” or sports before three months and no handraising for two weeks.

For the language, I created the blog in English to make it more accessible internationally. Even though most comments are written by french-speaking users, half of the blog traffic is international. Personally, I would prefer to read comments in OK-English than comments in perfect French.

P.S. Can I ask you what they told you about the dislocation? I got one in the gym a few weeks ago and I’m wondering what’s best thing to heal it. Took some rest but I still get some pain from time to time…

PPS. Is it mandatory to speak in English on this blog? :S

On a more hockey note, yes Kluzak was good when he was healthy, but for a first overall pick, this is not meeting expectations, same thing for what is presently happening to Rick DiPietro, also a first overall pick. I completely agree that this is a different story compared to other first overall picks busts like Brian Lawton and Alexandre Daigle who were unproductive when healthy.

It’s very interesting to find out what happened to Dan Blackburn and Gord Kluzak. Most hockey players could take notes since they often stop playing around 35, and find themselves with nothing to do.

On a hockey note, you label Gord Kluzak a major deception, which is only true due to multiples knee injuries. When he played, he was very good. In four seasons, he managed to reach the conference final and the Stanley Cup final (after his third major knee surgery), while putting up good offensive numbers for a defenseman and playing a solid hard hitting defensive style.

I think the third point is also very valid, though past performance is also a factor impacting credibility. Though Kluzak was no Crosby, he still was in the NHL, which puts him ahead of most players in European leagues for example.

As always, soccer has tons of examples of carreer reorientations (though most of them were not “forced” after an injury but the result of retirement from competition). Most of the coaches in professional teams are former players who completed some sort of “coach diploma”. Same for most of the consultants who are invited on TV or who comment games. But the ones who get the best first jobs are those who were famous players and who performed as athletes in the first place.

(It would take some time to mention them all but in France, most the players who won the 1998 World Cup now work for major TV channels, radios, magazines, and two of them coach Bordeaux and Marseille, some of the highest performing teams).