January 27, 2015

steve laidlaw

2015-01-27

The injury day ramblings, dealing with injuries to Okposo, Bobrovsky, Phaneuf and more…

Just when we thought we were getting back to the good stuff with the All-Star break ending the injury news started rolling in and my goodness was it horrible…

We'll start with news that Kyle Okposo will miss six to eight weeks with an upper-body injury. No specifics about the nature of the injury but I'm hearing rumours that it's an eye issue, which I have no clue how to approach. Just doing some quick calendar math, the eight week mark puts Okposo's return around the last week of March, which might be too late for some of you. At six weeks, he'd be back right in time for your head-to-head playoffs.

Could be worth rolling the dice on Okposo and stashing him if someone is giving him away in a one-year league. And if you are rebuilding in a keeper now is absolutely the time to make a pitch.

Losing a 70-point player obviously has a ripple effect. Word is Mikhail Grabovski was practicing on the top line in Okposo's slot. That's great news for Josh Bailey who was skating on John Tavares' other wing. Bailey's had a productive run there the past couple of weeks and while losing Okposo hurts, Grabovski slotting on the opposite wing removes one guy who could have bumped Bailey off the top line entirely as Bailey didn't get his most recent shot until Grabovski was hurt.

The big winner might be Ryan Strome and his owners. Strome has been stealing some time from Frans Nielsen on the top power play unit the past couple of weeks. Now the Islanders can keep Nielsen at the point and just slot Strome into Okposo's spot. Win-win for Strome and Nielsen.

Watch for Strome to push for top line minutes at even strength as well, he is the NHL leader in primary assists per minute at even-strength (stick tap to Thomas Drance for that gem.)

Next up for injury news, we finally have a timetable for Sergei Bobrovsky and it's a positive one. He'll miss four to six weeks with a lower-body injury. That brings Bob back in time for head-to-head playoffs, where he has been a monster the past couple of seasons. He could do so again.

I was going to float the notion that Bob's injury could somehow become season-ending but thinking deeply about it I just can't see it happening. It does make sense since the Blue Jackets are WELL behind in the playoff race so bringing him back would only serve hurt the team's draft placing.

But the Jackets don't strike me as a team that would outright tank. I think they place a certain value on how playing competitive hockey helps the development of its young players but I am not ruling this out.

Also working against that little idea is the fact that Bob is a serious competitor. He'll want to play even if it's meaningless. And he will certainly want to see action in order to prepare to be the starter for Russia at the World Championships.

In the meantime, Anton Forsberg has been called up to fill in. It did not go well last time around and I'd probably just avoid the Blue Jackets goalies entirely until Bobrovsky gets back.

By the way, Zac Rinaldo has been suspended eight games for that hit that put Letang out of commission.

On top of all that there was even a rumour about Taylor Hall getting hurt at practice yesterday but I haven't seen anything confirming or denying his availability to play so I assume he's good to go.

Not really injury news but deflating all the same, Mike Richards has been put on waivers by the Kings. Lots of speculation about which teams should use their abundant cap space to claim him before people quickly realized that the number of teams who could even absorb his cap hit were actually few and that his contract was so onerous that no team in their right mind would do so without offloading a bad contract of their own.

Apparently the Leafs and Flames tried to do just that but the Kings want to get out of this without taking on any unnecessary money. It seems unlikely that anyone will claim Richards so the decision will come down to sending him to the AHL or simply calling him back up. But it does sound like the Kings will send him down if no claim is made.

The unfortunate part of all of this is that the Kings had the opportunity to use a compliance buyout on Richards during the summer but if you recall, GM Dean Lombardi visited Richards at home, which is when Richards swore that he'd worked out harder than ever before. Not enough apparently as the rigors of the NHL have just run Richards down.

He could probably be a decent third/fourth centerman for a lot of teams but not at his current contract, which is why we see him headed towards AHL purgatory much like Wade Redden several years back.

In the meantime, Nick Shore has been called up once again.

Austin Wallace has new ramblings up, check them out here.

Apparently Nikita Zadorov has been suspended by the Sabres for failing to report on time following the break. No word on the length of the suspension but I guess it bodes well that the Sabres continue to demand accountability?

Darcy Kuemper has been assigned to the AHL by Minnesota on a conditioning stint. He can stay there for two weeks, which buys the Wild some time to sort out what they'll do with their goalies going forward. Looks like it's Devan Dubnyk's job to lose for now.

In other Wild news, check out their lines from their practice yesterday with Mikael Granlund back. Granlund with Zach Parise and Thomas Vanek could work out for all parties assuming Parise can drag these guys into relevance.

Meanwhile, Jason Zucker skates with Mikko Koivu and Jason Pominville so his accelerated relevance continues.

Sean McIndoe was able to come up with 25 reasons to love the All-Star Game so it can't be all bad.

Five questions with Ryan Whitney from Justin Bourne.

Got 15 minutes to learn about the origins of Gatorade? Check out this 30 for 30 Short:

If you have heard of ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary series then great, I hope you've enjoyed them so far. If you haven't it's time to take notice! They've got one coming out on February 8^th about the Russian team that the USA Miracle on Ice team beat at the 1980 Olympics. The Russian perspective has got to be one of the best sports stories never told. It's called Of Miracles and Men and you can watch a preview for it here. I haven't been as excited for a documentary as I am for this one.

You can follow me @SteveLaidlaw.