TORONTO — When Tyler SeguinOn July 4, Seguin entered Matheson Boulevard, Mississauga (Ont.) for lunch. He was greeted as if he were part of the family. Chris Soupourmas’ face lit up when Seguin walked through the door, and he greeted the star NHLSing his name in a fatherly, affectionate tone.
“Tyler has been coming here for a while,” Soupourmas, the owner of Jessie’s, said proudly while pointing to the menu on the far wall. “He always knows what he wants.”
Jessie’s is an unassuming establishment, just 0.3 miles from Iceland Arena, where Seguin had been working out on the ice for the past hour. Soupourmas reminisces about a time a decade ago, when Seguin was dropped off at the restaurant by his mom after a hard workout. Seguin was 30 years old and driving in his Ford F150. He was getting ready to start his 13th NHL Season.
Seguin had to abandon this routine for the past few years. Seguin’s hockey life was drastically altered when he felt a pop in the hip while riding in Edmonton’s bubble on July 29, 2020. This was one day before the NHL resumed play from the COVID-19 suspension.
A labral tear is always a traumatic injury, as it’s often the result of overuse over an extended period of time, but, according to Seguin’s surgeon, his torn hip labrum was on the more severe end of the spectrum. Given that Seguin played 26 playoff games after that initial pop, that wasn’t exactly a shocking revelation.
