According to the Baltimore Sun, the average cover athlete for an EA Sports hockey video game plays six fewer games in the season after they make the cover. It's not a jinx on the level of the Madden Curse, and EA Sports actually produced a video attempting to dispel the notion of hockey cover voodoo.

Philadelphia Flyers fans are hoping NHL 13 cover boy Claude Giroux hasn't been hexed.

Giroux is playing for Eisbären Berlin in Germany during the NHL lockout. He suffered a neck injury on Friday after a check to the head forced him out of a German Elite League game. There was no penalty on the play, and the Polar Bears petitioned the league over the non-call against Krefeld.

Giroux told the Philadelphia Daily News it's "just a little neck injury" and to "not read too much into it."

On Tuesday, however, the team announced that Giroux is headed back to the U.S. to see a specialist in Atlanta for further tests on his neck, as initial SCAT tests didn't reveal any damage but Giroux continued to feel "unwell," according to Hockeyweb.de.

Bill Meltzer notes that the initial word on Giroux was a "neck stinger", which is hopefully just the case. As '24/7' dutifully chronicled, he has some concussion history. But the good news is that this sounds all very precautionary, according to the GM of his German team.

For all the players that hopped overseas during the lockout, there's been (pleasantly) surprising few injuries to significant stars.

Remember the Great Rick Nash Injury Panic? The New York Rangers star hurt his shoulder early in the lockout, but initial concerns proved more dire than the actual injury.

It did lead to an interesting debate about a player suffering a significant injury — like a career-threatening one — overseas. As Andrew Gross of the Bergen Record wrote:

The short answer likely would be another fight between the NHL and the NHL Players' Association since no precedent has been set. One agent said Monday he believes such an injured player would argue he was fulfilling the language in his NHL contract that demands he stay in shape. Obviously, the NHL team would argue otherwise and possibly seek nullification of the deal. Likely, it would head to a grievance proceeding or a court of law.

Hey, good times. Let's end the lockout and bring our boys home, shall we?

s/t Broad Street Hockey