"Captains are supposed to inspire their team, and Bryan McCabe did that Saturday for the Panthers. McCabe, 35, took the ice with a broken finger and then had his jaw and several other facial bones broken when a puck climbed up his stick and ricocheted off his face midway through the first period. McCabe, a 15-year NHL defenseman, missed one shift while trainers attended to him and then finished the game, a 3-2 win over New Jersey. Twelve hours later McCabe was undergoing surgery Sunday at Coral Springs Medical Center to repair the damage and will be out at least two weeks. "He wouldn't come out of the game. A pretty gutsy effort," Panthers coach Peter DeBoer said. "He wants to lead this team to where it needs to go and is willing to do whatever it takes, and it was quite a show for him to do that and only miss one shift." "He is our captain, our general. It speaks volume about not only his pain tolerance but his competitive desire," goalie Scott Clemmensen said. DeBoer said an X-ray taken between the first and second periods revealed a break in the jaw, but McCabe insisted on finishing the game. "This isn't Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. It is a mid-January game between the Florida Panthers and New Jersey Devils. It shows a lot about him and why he is our captain," DeBoer said." Read more: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/...anthers-notebook-0117-20110116,0,427555.story
