Go Ahead and Run, Islanders Hip Will Still Find You

It's not much fun joking about player injuries -- it's a guy's livelihood being affected, after all -- but sometimes luck won't befriend you and all you've got left is gallows humor.

The latest published hip injury (Islanders Hip, we call it) in the Islanders' organization doesn't affect next NHL season, and its repair now rather than later might be best for all involved: Islanders 2010 3rd-round pick Jason Clark had not one, but two hip surgeries this summer.

SB Nation's Wisconsin (NCAA) blog Bucky's 5th Quarter has the details of how Clark had one nagging injury checked out -- only to learn his other hip would someday need work, too. Clark made the decision to have both operations, one in June, one in July. Now he's on the way to recovery and, hopefully, a better season skating free from pain.

Clark told Bucky's 5th Quarter the injury was limiting him "significantly" last season, so if you followed his freshman NCAA stats and wrote him off your NYI future depth chart, circumstances may beg you to reconsider.

And while we have our fun with Islanders Hip -- a fine tradition renewed by so many, from Mike Sillinger and Mike Comrie in years past to half the current blueline and goal crease -- hip injuries seem to be the running back's ACL/MCL of the NHL: From young to old to in between, everybody's hip to go under the knife.

Just be glad it's not de face.

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Related: Clark's post-draft Q&A with LHH from summer 2010.