Months removed from sports hernia and hip surgeries, Claude Giroux still didn't feel like himself.

The Philadelphia Flyers' captain finally got back to normal by the end of the season, roughly nine months after going under the knife.

"I thought it'd be quicker, to be honest," Giroux said. "It's harder than I thought it would've been."

Because of the unnatural motion of skating, hockey is among the most common sports for sports hernias, a catch-all term for what are also called core muscle injuries. Within the past couple of years, Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars, Patrice Bergeron of the Boston...