[Ed. note: The most detailed reports on Simon Gagne's potentially life-changing neck surgery are in the Quebec media. Many thanks go to reader Passemoilapuck for kindly translating excerpts for us.]

While I was trying to follow the whereabouts of the Stanley Cup in La Belle Province of Quebec, I found this article from Le Soleil (the main newspaper in Quebec City). It talks about Simon Gagne's day with the Cup in Quebec City, but focuses mainly on the surgical procedure Simon went through a couple of weeks ago to remove a lump in his neck. From the way the article describes it, it sounds like this might have caused a lot of the pain that he's been experiencing over the last few years.

This sounds very encouraging for Simon and his health, for the rest of his hockey career and more importantly for life after the NHL. (And obviously it would be great for us Kings fans, too.) Remember earlier this year when it was discovered that Crosby was treated for a neck injury, shortly before his comeback? I wonder if the same specialists were involved...

The full French article can be found here. Here is my imperfect attempt at translating the article from French to English.

Pendant que ses coéquipiers célébraient encore la Coupe Stanley remportée une semaine plus tôt, l’attaquant des Kings de Los Angeles, Simon Gagné, se trouvait sur la table d’opération le 18 juin, pour une intervention visant à enlever une masse de la taille d’une "balle de tennis" qui s’était formée dans son cou. La procédure pourrait être la réponse à tous les maux ressentis par le numéro 12 au cours des dernières saisons.

'While his teammates were still celebrating winning the Stanley Cup a week before, Kings forward Simon Gagne went under the knife on June 18th for a procedure to remove a "tennis ball" sized lump in his neck. The procedure could be the answer to all the pain experienced by #12 over the last few seasons.'

(More after the jump.)

Depuis trois ans, Simon Gagné vivait avec cette masse au cou, que ni les médecins des Flyers ni ceux du Lightning n’avaient osé toucher. Ironiquement, c’est une autre blessure subie dans la même région le 26 décembre qui a forcé les meilleurs spécialistes de Los Angeles à investiguer davantage

'For the last 3 years, Gagne lived with this lump in his neck that the doctors from the Flyers and Lightning did not want to mess with. Ironically, it is a different injury to the same area on December 26th that got the best L.A. specialists to look further into this.'

"Comme j’avais déjà été blessé, ils avaient décidé de ne pas prendre de chances, de traiter ma blessure comme une commotion cérébrale et de faire des tests. Après cinq mois, ils ont réalisé que c’était opérable, avec une chance de guérison à 100 %, et qu’il n’y aurait plus de problèmes par la suite. Ça fait déjà trois semaines et je me sens vraiment bien. Je suis content de l’avoir fait. Au bout de ça, on a une Coupe Stanley avec ça, alors c’est numéro un!" s’est enthousiasmé l’ailier gauche de 32 ans, qui profitait de sa journée avec le précieux trophée, vendredi.

“Since I had been already injured, they had decided to err on the safe side and treat my injury as a concussion and perform the normal tests. After 5 months, they realized that it could be operated on, with a possibility of a 100% recovery with no other future problems. It has been 3 weeks and I feel really good, glad I did it. At the end of the day, we also got a Stanley Cup, so it’s all #1”, said the 32-year-old LW during his day with the precious trophy on Friday.

La masse dont Gagné a été débarrassé est une accumulation de tissus qui se serait formée à la suite de coups. C’est elle qui, vraisemblablement, était la cause de ses douleurs chroniques, longtemps attribuées aux commotions. La batterie de tests passés a en outre permis de découvrir qu’elle était en fait une "capsule" qui pouvait être enlevée sans danger. Depuis l’opération, la vie du hockeyeur a littéralement changé.

'The lump that was removed from Gagne was an accumulation of soft tissue caused by on-ice hits. It was likely the cause of the chronic pain experienced by Gagne, which has long been credited to concussions. After the tests taken by Gagne, it was discovered that this lump could be removed without danger. Since the operation, the life of the hockey player has literally changed.'

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The article has more stuff, but these were the highlights. (He also jokingly blamed that neck lump for him "almost dropping the Cup at Staples").

Early reports were describing the lump/mass as about 5cm wide (or 2''), so maybe something between a golf ball and a racquetball ball rather than a tennis ball, but yeah painful nonetheless.

Let's hope this will be the end of Simon's chronic "upper body" pain.