Who wouldn't want to take a few days off from work to bask in the hot Florida sunshine?

Well, Gregory Campbell for one.

With his team, the Florida Panthers, off on a three-game road trip, the 25-year-old centre stayed in Florida while recuperating from a concussion.

"I feel a little like Tom Hanks in Castaway," Campbell says with a laugh.

Campbell was relatively healthy through the first five years of his NHL career, but this year has been, well, a pain in the butt.

It started when he suffered a hip flexor in training camp that kept him sidelined until the team's first game of the year in Finland.

"I don't know exactly how I hurt it, but it is one of those things that just seems to drag on," Campbell says.

Next up with a puck in the face during a game in Washington that resulted in his lip being badly split and many, many stitches.

"The last time we were in Washington I went to thank the Caps doctor for working on me and he said he didn't know how many stitches he put in me," Campbell says.

Chances are it was upwards of 50.

Then came the stick in the face that resulted in a broken nose in a game against St. Louis. Campbell faces surgery as a result of that one, but will defer until the off-season.

This past Monday, in a home game against the Edmonton Oilers, Campbell and teammate Bryan Allen collided and he suffered a concussion. He has been symptom free the past few days, but will miss at least the next three games. He hopes to be back by midway through next week.

Hockey is a tough game and injuries are a big part of the sport. Campbell knows that. Fact is he was reluctant to talk about his streak of bad luck for fear he would come across as complaining.

And by no means is he alone. In what could be dubbed The Year of the Injury, NHLers have been dropping like flies. From Alexander Ovechkin to Sidney Crosby to Andrei Markov to just about half the league, players have been making trips to sick bay at an alarming rate.

Perhaps it's the condensed schedule, due to this being an Olympic year, or perhaps players need to reconsider how they train in the off-season. At any rate, team doctors have been among the busiest workers in the league this year.

With three assists in 25 games, Campbell will have difficulty matching last year's breakout numbers of 13 goals and 32 points in 77 games. For now, all he cares about is getting back in the lineup.

"Everybody is different and everybody has different pain thresholds, but hockey players seem to be known for playing through injuries," Campbell says. "The one common thing you'll find with hockey players is, the first thing they ask after they have been hurt is, 'When can I play again?' When you are a young player you see guys in the NHL that play through injury and they are the guys that you idolize. You want to be like those guys. I've had injuries over the years, but I've been pretty lucky to be able to play 75-80 games a year. I just want to get back and start playing again."

This has been a tough year for the Panthers who will be hard pressed to make the playoffs. If they don't make it, it will mark nine straight seasons and for a team having difficulty attracting fans, and that is not a good thing. A big part of the reason why the Panthers have struggled could be tied to the loss of high-scoring forward David Booth who was crushed by a Mike Richards open-ice hit. Booth, too, suffered a concussion and is not close to returning.

The Panthers were also strapped by the decision not to trade star defenceman Jay Bouwmeester last season. They held on to him, hoping he'd help them make the playoffs, which we all know did not happen. Rather than move him at the trade deadline and get players who could help the team now as well as a draft pick or two, the Panthers settled for getting veteran defender Jordan Leopold and a third-round pick from Calgary in the off-season. What a joke!

For Gregory Campbell, and every player that is injured, it is tough to be home alone. All you can do is take your medicine and hope to get back as soon as possible.

"No matter how long you have been in the league, whether it's five years or 15 years, you know there's always somebody waiting to take your spot," Campbell says. "I try not to dwell on it. I just need to have the confidence that when I get back, I will play well and help the team in any way I can."

That is the mantra of the NHL player.