It didn’t look like Tom Sestito lost his fight with Zack Kassian on Thursday night against the Buffalo Sabres. He dominated off the bat and then Kassian came back a bit and maybe evened things out toward the end, but it’s not as if anything beyond an awkward fall at the end made it look as though Kassian beat Sestito.
I thought it was strange that Sestito went to the locker room and never came back to the game following the fight. I assumed that he was probably bloodied on one of the last few punches from Kassian and he’d be back in no time after a few stitches or whatever. He never did come back, though, and today we found out why: He tore his groin muscle and will miss 6-to-8 weeks following surgery next Tuesday, the Flyers announced.
Watching the video, you can see that the awkward fall is probably what caused the injury. It’s a tough break for a guy who’s gotten a really nice chance to play at the NHL level lately, but we can’t pretend that this is necessarily Earth-shattering in any context for the team and their playoff chances.
