'It was terrible': Stars center Tyler Seguin on fluky playoff injury, how close he was to returning

Tyler Seguin suffered a calf injury when he returned from an Achilles tendon injury in Game 2 of the first round playoff series, the Stars revealed Friday.

While Seguin and coach Lindy Ruff said the calf injury was directly related to the Achilles injury, both said they felt Seguin was healthy when he played April 16 against the Minnesota Wild.

"It's a tough one to explain. It's related, it's a calf injury that he suffered," Ruff said. "I guess it's related to the Achilles, maybe one area compensating for the other, but even with the two extra skates I thought he looked dynamic in practice the next couple of days and it's unfortunate what happened. He was medically cleared well before we even played him, but that's just stuff that happens."

Seguin said he knew when he either strained or tore his calf muscle in Game 2 that he was going to have problems. He finished the game and played 15:40,but he struggled throughout.

"It was terrible," Seguin said. "Honestly, I didn't really tell Lindy about it at the time. I hadn't been in the lineup, so I kind of kept it to myself and told (head trainer) Dave (Zeis) but not really Lindy. I've never felt anything like that."

Still, Seguin said he felt great when he was skating before Game 2 and understood the risk involved.

"I was told hips, knees, calf, this could all be caused from the Achilles," he said.

Asked if he came back too soon, Seguin said: "The thing with my calf is, I didn't have the strength yet when I was coming back in the lineup. It was another fluke thing that happened, a weird step that made it go fireworks in my leg. You can speculate all you want. I could have waited a couple of more games. I'm a competitive athlete and I see my team working hard the last 10 games of the season with me hurt and then I get a chance to be back in the lineup for Game 2 against Minnesota, I'm not going to pass that up."

Stars general manager Jim Nill said a lot of thought went into the decision-making to put Seguin back into the lineup.

"He had the Achilles tendon severed. It was fully healed, he came back, and he had an injured calf muscle," Nill said. "Is that a result of the Achilles? We don't know. We think it is just because of the way everything heals up, different dynamics, the muscle's firing different. He came back that first game and severely injured his calf muscle."

The loss of Seguin, who is fourth in scoring in the NHL over the past three seasons, was significant. Ruff said just having Seguin there to finish some of the great scoring chances the Stars created would have been helpful.

"If you give Tyler a couple of those opportunities that some of our players had, he doesn't miss," Ruff said. "That's just what he is, he's a dynamic goal scorer, and he doesn't need five chances to score one. I don't want to use any excuses, we didn't have him. We had to play without him and I still think we had a chance to beat them without him. Would he have helped? I think the answer's yes."

Seguin said the experience was mentally exhausting. He said watching his teammates battle hard for two months without him was tough.

"I wanted to be back out there so badly, but there wasn't really any much talk of me playing against St. Louis," he said. "Then, the last few days, I really started feeling a lot better and started being able to skate a lot harder. Personally, I was hoping for maybe a Game 2, Game 3 next round. So I was close, but I wasn't close enough yet."

Now, he said, he will focus on being ready for the World Cup of Hockey, which starts Sept. 17 in Toronto. Seguin and Jamie Benn have been selected for Team Canada.

"My motivation's huge," Seguin said. "This offseason is going to be a little different with that World Cup stuff happening and with being injured, continuing rehab. Like I told our docs, even if I came back in the next round, I still wasn't going to be 100 percent. So it was probably next year and it would take an offseason to get my Achilles fully healed and get my calf back working. I'm really working very hard on that probably starting next week and getting it back to 100 percent."

Stars' Tyler Seguin missed playoffs with strained calf

Tyler Seguin says he didn't even know he had calf muscles before the All-Star forward from Dallas injured one trying to come back from a cut on his left Achilles tendon.

So the 24-year-old will just add that to his off-season conditioning checklist as he tries to get healthy for next year after sitting out all but one postseason game this season.

"Probably the toughest time of my career I would say, being away from the rink," Seguin said Friday following team meetings two days after a Game 7 loss at home to St. Louis with a trip to the Western Conference finals at stake. "Just two months of trying to find a fine line between supporting the guys and also not being a distraction and making sure they can do their jobs."

The trouble started March 17 when Seguin was cut during a 4-3 victory against Tampa Bay. He missed the final 10 games of the regular season but was skating close to full speed when the playoffs started.

After Seguin missed the opener against the Wild, coach Lindy Ruff decided to give the team's No. 2 scorer behind captain Jamie Benn a shot in the second game. The left calf, weakened by the layoff, didn't last long.

Calls injury 'fireworks in my leg'

"It was another fluke thing that happened, a weird step that made it go fireworks in my leg," said Seguin, who had 73 points during the regular season (33 goals, 40 assists). "I've never felt anything like that."

The Stars also revealed Friday that Patrick Sharp separated a shoulder in the St. Louis series and fellow forward Antoine Roussel had a strained abdomen. Both played all 13 postseason games. Travis Moen was limited to six games with a broken wrist.

Dallas led the Western Conference with 109 points in the regular season, and extended the second-place Blues to seven games despite getting outscored 25-14 in the series. Dallas never scored more than three goals in a game.

"It was going to be a tight series regardless of who was in the lineup," forward Jason Spezza said. "Would he have helped us? Definitely. He's a special player in the league. The reality of it was is he wasn't going to be able to play. You almost just block it out and you move forward and that shows the resiliency of the group."

Ruff pointed to several missed chances early before Game 7 got out of hand and the Blues cruised to a 6-1 victory.

"I'm going to tell you if you give Tyler a couple of those opportunities that some of our players had, he doesn't miss," Ruff said after falling to 0-4 in Game 7s as a coach. "That's just what he is. He's a dynamic goal scorer, and he doesn't need five chances to score one."

If Seguin is healthy and the Stars are contending a year from now, the high-scoring duo of Benn and Seguin will try to win a postseason series together for the first time. They lost in the first round to Anaheim in 2014, Seguin's first season with the Stars.

"I think whenever you have a chance to have Tyler in the lineup, it's going to make your team better," said Benn, the captain who was second in the NHL in regular-season points with 89 (41 goals, 48 assists) and tied for second in playoff points through two rounds with 15 (five and 10). "It was tough not having him, but we had to find a way to do it without him and came up short."

From Seguin's point of view, the Stars were effective without him.

"We bought into playing with who was in the lineup," he said. "I don't think anyone was really thinking about that during the games. But obviously when we're in those close games, and I'm watching upstairs and I know I can help." Maybe next year.