The announcement over at the Freep on Friday seemed to make official what Red Wings fans already feared about this season and the injury suffered by Patrick Eaves: we will not see him again this season. One of our readers had a great idea to show Eaves our support through this time. I’ll let SlapshotGoal take it from here:
I love hockey, you guys love hockey, that’s why we’re here. One of the things I love about hockey fans is the sense of community and family that brings us together. There are countless examples of the hockey community coming together for a cause, to help someone in need, or to provide support. Today we have a special opportunity to come together and show our support for one of our own. As most of you know, Patrick Eaves is currently struggling to recover from a concussion that started out as a broken jaw that resulted from taking a puck to the face on November 26th. What looked to be a painful, arduous recovery from a broken jaw, originally expected to take 6-8 weeks, has turned into a probable season ending injury. With Eaves being out of the lineup for so long, many seem to have forgotten him; but not us. Over the last couple months, I’ve been thinking a lot about Eaves and wishing there was something I could do, some way to encourage him and let him know that he’s still in our thoughts; and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Guess what? Turns out I was right! Today I’m proud to say that we have that opportunity; an opportunity to tell him that we appreciate the heart and dedication he brings to the game, and that we look forward to his full recovery and return to the Wings lineup. I’m sure he’s battling not only through the post-concussion symptoms and physical pain, but also the uncertainty, the discouragement and maybe feeling like he’s been replaced or forgotten. Well here’s our chance to let him know what he means to us and offer up our encouragement. For the details on how, I’ll throw it back to J.J.
So here’s where we come in: Please use the comments of this post to send any well-wishes, encouragement, or other positive words to Eaves. We will be collecting these across various sites over the next week and will pass those forward. If you do want to send physical gifts or care packages, please send me an email and I will help coordinate that.
Please try to stay on-topic in the comments here. Speak here as though you’re speaking directly to Eaves.
Thank you all, and let’s go Red Wings!
