Hockey Fans Get Lucky, Daniel Carcillo Out For Season

The universe is guided by some basic laws and the rest is random chance and luck. Fate, karma and kismet are just the human mind's biases at work. Sometimes though, it's nearly impossibly to conceive the outcomes of random chance and luck. The outcome is so perfectly matched to the situation, so perfectly suited a necessity, the belief there must be some intervening force at work is easy to hold on to.

News of Daniel Carcillo's season-ending knee surgery, is one such outcome:

Carcillo will have season-ending surgery on Tuesday to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament he suffered Jan. 2 against the Edmonton Oilers. Dr. Michael Terry said in a statement that "this decision was made today after much evaluation and consideration of various options. We anticipate a full return in six months."

While it seems like karma, remember that plenty of dirty plays, though few are as dirty as this, don't have such a great karmic comeuppance. Players like Matt Cooke escape retribution for years and no great intervening force slams down on them like the fist of an angry god. Sure, Brendan Shanahan stepped in, reviewed the hit and suspended Carcillo for seven games, but it wasn't enough. Carcillo's hit was the perfect example of a non-hockey play and was easy to make an example of, yet Shanahan chose not to.

But for once, Oilers' fans got lucky. Luck and physics came together in a most harmonious manner and combined to punish Carcillo appropriately.