Today was the day that the sky fell on Isles fans everywhere when it was announced that John Tavares destroyed one of his knees tearing his MCL and meniscus requiring major reconstructive surgery and is, of course, done for the season. What really has to sting is Tavares was doing eff all in the Olympics so far posting no points in four games with a plus-3 rating with six shots on goal; hell, he was only averaging 10:39 of ice time to begin with. Hmn, seems like I’m just rubbing salt in the wound there, but I’ll go with it! This injury affects three types of people; Isles fans, Tavares owners and Kyle Okposo owners. What does it do to Tavares owners? It basically cripples your team unless you made some killer trade or ended up getting really lucky with solid wire grabs earlier in the season. You can’t replace his production, you can’t even get close, but feel free to drop him and add whoever you can to make up some of the loss. I’m sorry to say it, but that’s how it rolls. You have my condolences, y’all. As for Okie owners this one is easy, trade him immediately. I don’t think Okie’s production is going to fall off a cliff, but it’s going to take a hit regardless, it’s only a matter of how much. Before anyone gets a whiff of just how badly it will affect Okie you have to move him while his value is this high. As I type this it’s falling ever so slightly and slowly with these questions now looming over him for the last 30 games of the season. To make matters worse for Okie owners it’s almost a foregone conclusion that Thomas Vanek is going to get traded when NHL play resumes next week and that will really erode Okie’s value. He is as talented as he has been playing this season but lets not fool ourselves into thinking that losing Vanek and Tavares on his line won’t hurt his value. You don’t move him for a bag of pucks and a sixer, but you definitely want to try and move him before Vanek is gone and the world gets a look at lonely Okie on a line with, uh, Mike Grabner and, er… Frans Nielsen? Yikes. Act quickly, but not foolishly. Anyway, this isn’t all the injury news from the Olympic pains, err games:
Henrik Zetterberg is done for team Sweden and out for the tournament with a herniated disc in his back. This is an old injury for Z, but he aggravated it and speaking as someone who suffers from the same ailment don’t count on his return being immediate when NHL play resumes next week. He may or may not be done for the year, we’ll now more when he gets examined later this week.
Mats Zuccarello broke his hand and returned to New York today to get it evaluated. There’s no time table for his return.
Aleksander Barkov also hurt his knee and is down for 4-6 weeks. The rookie was having a pretty solid season, but I doubt this ruins anyone’s day.
