Anthony Mantha done for the season with ‘upper body’ injury

Well, there goes one of the very few reasons the final few games of this season was somewhat watchable. Anthony Mantha left last night’s 5-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning after getting into a fight with Lightning defenceman Luke Witkowski. The Wings aren’t saying what the injury is specifically, giving it the ever-mysterious ‘upper body injury’ tag.

According to Lightning insider Erik Erlendsson, this fight was in response to a fight in last week’s game against Tampa, in which Mantha got into it with Greg McKegg and landed some extra blows after McKegg hit the ice. This was Mantha’s fifth fight of the season, and while it’s admirable he plays with that edge to his game and is willing to stand up for himself or his teammates, if you’re going to be a high-level producer in this league, you can’t be getting into fights that often. Case and point, his season just ended prematurely for no good reason.

Mantha had enjoyed a breakout season in 2016-17, and was one of just a few bright spots on an otherwise frustrating, disappointing Wings team that’ll (have you heard?!?!) miss the playoffs for the first time in 25 years. He scored 17 goals and 19 assists in 60 games with the Wings, more than anybody realistically expected for the 22-year-old’s first full season in the NHL.