Hockey is a dangerous sport, apparently, and enough key players have been recently bit with the injury bug that I felt it warranted an injury roundup post to keep y’all appraised of the situations. I will make injury updates periodically when enough build up like they have this week.
Sergei Bobrovsky was helped off the ice with a lower-body injury Tuesday night with about 15 minutes left in the third. He was replaced by Curtis McElhinney. Bobber hurt himself being all fancypants and doing a split while making a glove save on just the 18th shot he faced all night from the Bolts. He’ll have an MRI later today.
UPDATE: Bobrovsky is out for four to five weeks, Curtis McElhinney is the new starter.
Pavel Datsyuk participated in morning skate this morning, his first in more than a week. Wings GM Ken Holland said that Dats needs a solid week of practice before he can be cleared to play again. Still, it’s encouraging for his owners to hear that he’s skating again, at least.
Henrik Zetterberg is out for at least two weeks with a herniated disc in his back. This has been a problem for Z going on a few years now, though he hasn’t missed any significant time because of it in recent memory. How screwed are the Wings without Dats AND Zetterberg?
Tyler Seguin is expected to skate today and Stars coach Lindy Ruff says that “He’s doing well. He did really well yesterday. He’ll be one guy that could skate tomorrow and there’s a possibility he could play in Toronto, it’s really encouraging.” The Stars face Toronto tomorrow.
Semyon Varlomov is nursing a minor groin strain and may miss a game or two, but it doesn’t sound like anything serious. Peter Budaj will get the call if he misses time.
Shea Weber and his bum eyeball haven’t started practicing again yet. It sounds like he may be out for longer than first expected.
Evgeni Nabokov rejoined the Isles for practice this week. He’s still expected to miss another few weeks, but might be back sooner than expected. Oh good, then we can get back to enjoying his mediocre play!
Michael Neuvirth was placed on injured reserve retroactive to Nov. 29 after he stepped on a puck during warmups and tweaked his right leg. Smooth. Promising young netminder Philipp Grubauer will back up Braden Holtby until Neuvirth returns.
Torey Krug missed practice yesterday with a “minor body issue”, but returned to the ice this morning for the Bs’ optional skate. What the hell is a minor body issue? Was he having a bad hair day or something?
Evander Kane did not join the Jets’ morning skate and seems to be nursing yet another injury, this time a lower-body problem. He missed his last game and it looks like he may miss this one; there is no word as to how severe the injury is or if he will miss an extended period of time again.
Tyler Bozak didn’t skate this morning after suffering a lower-body injury last night. He’s already missed a month with a bad hammy, now he’s down again with another lower-body injury? That sounds good.
Vincent Lecavalier wasn’t on the ice this morning for the Flyers’ morning skate and is set to miss his second straight game with a bad back.
Ilya Bryzgalov is dealing with concussion symptoms and apparently some whiplash as well after being creamed by Ryan Garbutt the other night. Jason Hanna-(La)Barbera was called up to back up the stellar Devan Dubnyk. There is no timetable for Breezy’s return.
Alexandre Burrows suffered a broken jaw against the Canes and underwent successful surgery on Monday. He’ll be out for a month or so.
Anton Khudobin has been practicing this week and travelled with the Hurricanes on their two-game road trip that started yesterday. Justin Peters’ value takes a big hit with Khudobin’s return.
