DALLAS (AP) - When Anaheim Ducks defenseman Stephane Robidas broke his right leg for the second time this season, the pain was felt on both benches.
“It’s a heartbreaker, really,” Dallas Stars coach Lindy Ruff said Tuesday. “First-class guy. … I know how hard he worked to even come back and play.”
Robidas, traded last month from Dallas to Anaheim, broke his leg early in the second period Monday night, a 3-0 win by the Stars in Game 3 of the first-round playoff series.
“It was a terrible thing,” Ducks defenseman Ben Lovejoy said. “You feel awful for him. He’s battled to get back. He’s become a big part of our team. We will absolutely miss him on the ice and off the ice. We want to win for a multitude of reasons and he’s now added to the list.”
The last home game Robidas played for the Stars was Nov. 29, when he slid hard into the board before being taken off the ice on a stretcher with a broken leg. He didn’t play again until after the trade deadline deal to the Ducks.
In his first game back in Dallas, Robidas was undercut by Ryan Garbutt when his former teammate went sliding in front of the Dallas net.
“He dove for the puck. The kid tries hard, sometimes not the right way. I’ve seen a lot of players in the league like that. They try really hard and sometimes they aren’t safe,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “But I don’t think there was anything meant in any of that. He was a good teammate for them. If Robi was with us like he is, I’ve got to imagine what he was like in eight or nine years in Dallas. He must have been very loved.”
Boudreau said the options to replace Robidas in Game 4 on Wednesday night include Luca Sbisa and Mark Fistric, another former Dallas player.
Fistric has completed a rehab stint after being out since March 15 because of a lower-body injury. Sbisa is in his fifth season with the Ducks, but has never been in the playoffs and appeared in only 30 games this season.
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