During the first period of Tuesday’s Bruins-Stars game, Boston forward Chris Kelly went down in front of the Dallas bench and immediately grabbed at his knee area in obvious pain. It wasn’t quite clear what happened to Kelly, who seemed to avoid any contact on the play, but he remained on the ice for several moments before being helped to the locker room.
Towards the end of the game, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney released a statement that revealed a grim diagnosis for Kelly: a fractured femur.
Chris sustained a left femur fracture in the first period of the Bruins/Stars game on Tuesday, November 3 and was transported to Mass General Hospital. He will undergo surgery on Wednesday, November 4 at Mass General Hospital and his expected recovery time is between six and eight months.
The femur is one of the strongest bones in the human body – rarely injured outside of car crashes – so it’s pretty bizarre and concerning that the fracture came on a non-contact play that didn’t look extremely out of the ordinary.
Kelly has been a warrior and a key role player for the Bruins over much of the past handful of years, so his loss will certainly be felt by Boston through the remainder of the season. But the injury also comes at an extremely unfortunate time for Kelly, who is about to turn 35-years-old and is on the final year of his contract. Just brutal.
