Injuries were the main story this week in hockey.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are depleted at the forward position. With two of the league top forwards already out (Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby), the Penguins added to their injuries with Chris Kunitz and Mark Letestu. Those four accounted for nearly half of their goal production this season, according to John Mehno of the Observer-Reporter.
Another injury happened to a key player this week. Keith Ballard, a defencemen that the Vancouver Canucks signed over the off season, injured his knee Monday night and could be out 3-4 weeks.
"It was stiff this morning, (which is) to be expected," Ballard said. "After sleeping last night, it stiffened up. I've been here for a few hours today, doing treatment, and it's helped quite a bit. It wasn't bad."
With Alexander Edler and Sami Salo out with their respective injuries, the Canucks have injuries to three very important players in their organization. In addition, Andrew Alberts was hit in the throat by a puck in practice Tuesday. Alberts remained on the ice for awhile before skating back to the bench under his own power.
"It feels like on the back end, there's always somebody hurt. And today, in practice, another injury, fortunately it wasn't anything serious," said Canucks defenceman Kevin Bieksa, according to tsn.ca.
Talking about getting injured in practice, New York "Islanders goalie Kevin Poulin injured his left leg in warmups Tuesday night, temporarily leaving New York without a backup for its game against the Toronto Maple Leafs," said ESPNNewYork.com. He caught his left skate in a rut and awkwardly fell. Mikko Koskinen, a goalie from Finland who was playing because of injuries to DiPietro and Nathan Lawson, got the emergency start and made his NHL debut. He was the fifth goalie to play for the Islanders this season, according to ESPNNewYork.com.
It is approximately three weeks away from the NHL trade deadline and talks are slow between teams right now. However, the bigger story is the player who wants to come back.
Peter Forsberg is expected to play by the end of this week for the Colorado Avalanche, according to Zach Nichols of the Examiner. "The Avs may need Peter Forsberg to play sooner rather than later," Nichols said.
Lastly, check out these two videos from the past week. One dirty hit and one solid punch!
is DiPietro the worst contract in recent NHL history?
ReplyDeletesurvey says yes
you spelled "defensemen" wrong! haha I got you bro!
ReplyDeleteKiger you are wrong actually! Look it up bro!
ReplyDeleteYou mean 15 years for 67.5 million is too much? He's one of the top goalies in the league...not.
DiPietro is bad but Kovalchuks looked worse during the first part of the season. At least Dipietro was/is injured so often he hardly affected the Islanders salary cap.
ReplyDeleteThat Cooke hit is a great example of what's wrong with hockey.
ReplyDeleteTrue enough about Kovalchuk. The worse thing about Kovalchuk is it took like eight years to get the deal done. OK, maybe a little over-exaggerated, but you get my point.
ReplyDeleteCooke is a feisty player and he's going to make hits like that every once in awhile. But I agree, it gives hockey a bad reputation.
Jonnie: Good to see you've got some people following you on your blog. The injury report is interesting, but would be a lot more compelling if there was some context. Is it unusual, or is this just what happens in a contact sport like hockey (I suspect the latter). Anything being said these days about ways players can be protected from injuries? That would make a good subject for a post. Score = 9
ReplyDelete