Checking From Behind Pulling No Punches

 

 

Yesterday, we looked at how injuries have affected the Northwest division. We discovered that the Wild, Canucks and the Oilers could potentially be excused for their slow starts, considering all the injuries they’ve accumulated. The Wild and Oilers can pretty much write off their seasons as a result, but the Canucks should start rolling with healthy bodies making their way back into the line-up. The Flames and Avs could very well be sitting in playoff positions right now thanks to their healthy line-ups.

Taking this information, and knowing that injuries, or lack thereof, could be at the very least considered when talking about team performance, how will injuries apply to the Northeast division? The Bruins and especially the Habs have both had injury woes, and struggled early on as a result. The Sabres and Sens have stayed relatively healthy and benefited as a result. But the Leafs haven’t had too many injuries, yet find themselves with the Oilers and Wild, at the bottom of the standings.

Therefore, today, we look at injury reports from these five teams, and how their respective injured players will affect these teams through the tough month of December. First, an explanation of the scale I have been using:

Major Injuries include long term injuries that have been confirmed to be over a month long, to players of great importance to their specific teams. Usually one or two players will be included in this category, if any.

Key Injuries include significant players who are due to be out for at least a week, or major injuries who are on the verge or returning.

Minor Injuries are less significant players, day-to-day injuries, that sort of thing.

Earlier injuries: are players who have already returned from injuries earlier in the season. Only players who have missed more than a game will be included here. Finally, Affect is a short analysis on how injuries have affected this team over the first few months of the season.

Data was compiled using lists and player reports from ESPN, Yahoo, TSN, Rotoworld, and other major news and fantasy sources.
Here is today’s division, the Northeast:

Major Injuries Milan Lucic, high ankle sprain, out 1 month.

Milan Lucic was supposed to be a breakout player this year. He had a great season last year with the powerhouse Bruins, but with Phil Kessel gone, the light was ready to shine on the power forward. Having already missed a month with a broken finger, the news of Lucic’s latest injury is devastating for both Lucic and the Bruins, who will miss another month with an ankle sprain. One can only hope this doesn’t become a pattern for Lucic, who just signed a brand new 3-year extension with the Bruins.

Key Injuries: NONE

Minor Injuries: Tim Thomas (unknown, has been on bench while Tukka Rask gets the starts).

Earlier injuries: Krejci (2 games, H1N1, also missed preseason), Savard (15 games, broken foot), Wideman (3 games, shoulder), Bitz (3 games, Groin).

Affect: It’s somewhat ironic that once the Bruins finally get Patrice Bergeron back to form, after he missed an entire year two years ago to concussion symptoms and struggled last year, both of their top two centers had trouble. Savard missed most of the season so far with a broken foot, and Krejci struggled after missing training camp and falling to the swine flu, and along with Lucic’s injuries, it showed in the Bruins’ first month of play. However the Bruins have returned to form, silently overtaking the top spot in the Northeast from the Sabres and going 6-1-3 in their last 10.

Major Injuries Andrei Markov, sliced tendon, 3 to 4 months.

The worst thing that could happen to a team is for them to lose their franchise player to a major injury in the first game of the season. On October 1st, nightmare became reality for the Montreal Canadiens, as Andrei Markov was on the receiving end of a freak accident involving a tendon in his ankle and Carey Price’s skate. Last week we learned that Markov could return earlier than expected, as early as the end of December, however it’s been a rough two months for the Habs without their number one defenseman.

Brian Gionta, broken left foot, out indefinitely

Although not seemingly as grave as the Markov injury, Gionta is a still a huge loss for the Habs, who rely heavily on their top line for offense as well as leadership. An early candidate for the captaincy, Gionta was backing up his hype with 8 goals through 19 games and very consistent play. A broken foot not only hurts his season and the Habs, but pretty much kills any small chance he had at making team USA for next year’s Olympics.

Key Injuries: Scott Gomez (groin), will be back this week (as early as Tuesday vs. the Leafs), but has hurt the already ailing habs in his absence these last few games. Andrei Kostitsyn (leg, or possibly hand) is also day-to-day. He took a slash, followed by a blocked shot last Wednesday against the Pens, and his status is uncertain. Hal Gill (Hairline fracture, foot) may be big and clumsy, but his absence is sorely missed on the back end. He should be back within a week or two.

Minor Injuries: Matt D’Agostini (Concussion, 1 week), Benoit Pouliot (wrist).

Earlier injuries: Metropolit (6 games, ribs), Hamrlik (1 game and preseason, illness), Spacek (2 games, lower body), Laraque (8 games, back), O’Byrne (19 games, knee).

Affect: The Habs have one of the longest injury lists in the league this season. Players on this team are dropping like flies. Only 7 skaters have dressed for all of the Canadiens games, and although they’ve struggled defensively as a result, they’ve been lucky enough to stay somewhat on par with a 12-12-2 record, thanks to strong goaltending and strong leadership by the remaining healthy players, and they should play a lot better once they’re healthy, and certainly once Markov is back on the roster.

Major Injuries NONE

Key Injuries: John Mitchell (knee) is on IR and is out indefintitely. Vesa Toskala (groin) is on IR but is considered day-to-day. That, however, might be good news for the leafs). Mike Komisarek (leg) has been out for three weeks but will likely be back tonight.

Minor Injuries: Mike Van Ryn (knee) is out for the season. His career is arguably over.

Earlier injuries: Kessel (shoulder surgery, 12 games and preseason), Primeau (4 games, shoulder).

Affect: It’s interesting enough that the Leafs didn’t have that many injuries in this early part of the season. A lot of the struggles teams have had around the league can be attributed to injuries, but the leafs were mostly injury free. But despite high expectations, they find themselves relatively healthy and in the cellar of the eastern conference. One can only imagine their record if more key players had injured in October and November.

Major Injuries NONE

Key Injuries: Paul Gaustad (knee), is slated to miss a few weeks. This will hurt the Sabres as he is their best faceoff man and an unsung hero for the team. Craig Rivet (leg) is day-to-day after sliding into the boards feet-first on Friday, but his injuries aren’t too severe.

Minor Injuries: NONE

Earlier injuries: Grier (groin, 5 games), Sekera (rib, 7 games)

Affect: The Sabres are another team who’s correlation between the standings and their injuries is blatantly evident. A team that many wrote off in their pre-season predictions, two months in, the Sabres sit 1 point behind the Bruins for the division lead with only 23 games (3 less than the bruins). Ryan Miller is on his game and it shows. If the Sabres can maintain this healthy state, the playoffs look to be in their future this season.

Major Injuries Pascal Leclaire, broken jaw, late December.

In one of the funnier injury stories since Glenn Healy broke his finger playing the bagpipes, Leclaire broke his face while sitting on the bench as a back-up in a recent game, when a puck hit him in the face. Leclaire isn’t a stranger to injury, consistently suffering minor and major injuries throughout his career, was finally catching a break as the starter in Ottawa before this happened. Brian Elliot will now carry the load.

Key Injuries: Chris Neil (knee), is out until mid-December, which is unfortunate for the agitator, who was playing some of his best hockey ever. Anton Volchenkov (dislocated elbow) is set to return this week. He’s still on pace for a career offensive year despite missing 14 games, and might be an interesting fantasy pick-up.

Minor Injuries: Donovan (knee, week-to-week)

Earlier injuries: Fisher (2 games, upper body), Shannon (3 games, concussion), Kuba (8 games, lower body), Spezza (2 games, upper body)

Affect: The Sens are another team who were pretty lucky with injuries this year, as Volchenkov has been their only really significant injury thus far, and they’ve been rewarded with a playoff position for it through 24 games. The real test is now, December, where they schedule gets tougher and they have to do it without their number one goalie. Elliot is certainly good and can handle the load of a well-used back-up (or #1B), but Ottawa has 17 games in 31 days in December, and Elliot will have to play most of them until Leclaire is ready to return. If they can stay the course through this stretch, the Sens will be in a good position heading into the race for the playoffs.

As we've already said, using injuries as an excuse for poor play is iffy at times. But in the case of the Boston Bruins as well as the Montreal Canadiens, the excuse is certainly valid. A team can't be missing their top center, and have their second line center struggle due to injury, and be expected to perform at their normal level, and that showed early in the season for the Bruins. Now that they're starting to get healthy, they're rolling. And you can expect the Habs to react the same way when their forwards get healthy and Andrei Markov returns to action.

The Sabres and Sens have benefited from all these teams who's players are dropping like flies, and once again, it shows in the standings. The Leafs, well, they're just the Leafs.

Tomorrow, we'll cover the Central division.

Prax
www.thecheckingline.com

www.twitter.com/thecheckingline

First of all I would like to thank Michael Aldred for giving me the opportunity to post on his site. I will be contributing mostly for the Habs, but I thought this Fantasy injury round-up was important enough to share. For this and more, visit www.thecheckingline.com!

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We've all heard of the insane amount of injuries in the league so far this season. From Ovechkin, to Kovalchuk, and many others, a lot of very high profile players have missed time with their respective teams due to injuries, to a degree that has driven fantasy hockey players and NHL fans to near insanity. Many teams have lost important players for significant amounts of time, to the point where it has affected team depth and game results.

Anyone will tell you that injuries are no excuse, but there is a limit, even to that argument, when teams have trouble icing complete teams this early in the season, and require emergency call-ups, moving defensemen to forward positions, and icing teams consisting mostly of American Hockey League players.

But as we said, it isn't only fans of specific teams that are pulling their hair out, but fantasy hockey players who have more injured players than IR positions on their teams.

That being said, I will be compiling as complete a list of injuries teams have had this season as I can. We will start today with the Northwest division, and work our way forward with a new division just about every day in the coming week.

The scale I'm going to use is pretty simple. Three categories detailing the degree and importance of an injury.

Major Injuries include long term injuries that have been confirmed to be over a month long, to players of great importance to their specific teams. Usually one or two players will be included in this category.

Key Injuries include significant players who are due to be out for at least a week.

Minor Injuries: Less significant players, day-to-day injuries, that sort of stuff.

Earlier injuries are players who have already returned from injuries earlier in the season, andAffect is a short analysis on how injuries have affected this team.

Data was compiled using lists from ESPN, Yahoo, TSN, Rotoworld, and other major news and fantasy sources.

So without further adieu, here we go!

Major Injuries: David Jones , out for season, torn left ACL.

At a glance, one would say "David who?". But Jones was one of many young players on the Avs that was breaking out this season. He was second in team scoring with 10 goals in 23 games (16 points total), and only Stastny, Hedjuk, and Wolski were ahead of him in ice time per game amongst forwards on the team. He's a big part of this surprising young Avs team that will be missed as the season gets tougher, and will need to be replaced before the deadline through a trade.

Key Injuries: Two key injuries to the Avs defense, as both Kyle Cuminsky (foot) and Ruslan Salei (back) are on the Avs' IR. Cuminsky was just placed on IR and Salei, who's missed most of the season, should be returning soon, despite suffering a recent setback , but both are important parts of the Avs defense.

Minor Injuries: Milan Hedjuk (knee) did not play Saturday night but will accompany the Avs on their upcoming road trip

Earlier injuries: Adam Foote (5 games, Jaw), John-Michael Liles (12 games, shoulder), TJ Galiardi (9 games, ankle), Cody Mcleod (6 games, eye), Darcy Tucker (8 games, concussion), Tom Preissing (16 games, knee injury, 1 game, fatigue, recently placed on waivers)

Affect: As you can see, the Avs have been heavily affected by injuries. While there are a lot of young players on this team, there are also a lot of veterans who have been affected by Colorado's new system. The Avs started off strong and lead the Northwest for a long period of time, but in their last ten, they're 2-5-3 and they've fallen to 5th place in the West. They've been most impacted on defense, where they've lost most of their top defensemen for significant amounts of time, and have fallen to the depths of the west in goals against with 83.

Major Injuries: Pavol Demitra, offseason shoulder surgery, no timetable for return.

Demitra was supposed to be a major part of Vancouver's offense this year. With 20 goals and 53 points in 69 games last year, Demitra would have certainly improved on those numbers this year... had he not required surgery in the off-season. While the Canucks are starting to get healthy, Demitra's absense is still an important one for the Canucks, who currently find themselves outside of the Western Conference playoff picture.

Key Injuries: Michael Grabner has been out the entire month of November and is expected to miss a few more weeks with a broken ankle. The rookie winger was off to a good start with 5 points in 9 games since being called up from the moose.

Minor Injuries: Rick Rypien (upper body, day-to-day), Alexandre Bolduc (shoulder, IR)

Earlier Injuries Sammi Salo (7 games, sprained MCL), Jannik Hansen (19 games, broken hand), Ryan Johnson (4 games, concussion), Mathieu Schneider (10 games, shoulder surgery), Kyle Wellwood (4 games, foot), Daniel Sedin (18 games, broken foot), Roberto Luongo (6 games, ribs)

Affect: The Canucks have been just as affected by injuries as most other teams. They've certainly felt the injury bug in every position. The prolonged absences of Daniel Sedin and Pavol Demitra have hurt the team offensively, althoug Henrik Sedin, Ryan Kesler and Mikael Samuelsson have certainly worked hard to make up the difference. Schneider and Salo's absences hurt the team defensively, but Ehrhoff, Edler, Bieksa and Mitchell certainly made up for them. And finally, Luongo's fractured ribs gave the team a scare, but Cory Schneider and Andre Raycroft held the team together while he was good. With a lot of injuries players already back, this team should start rolling and get back into a playoff position sooner rather than later.

Major Injuries: NONE

Key Injuries: Rene Bourque has missed 5 games with an undisclosed injury, but will likely play this week. Cory Sarich is also day-to-day and likely to play soon.

Minor Injuries: NONE

Earlier Injuries David Moss (4 games, upper body), Brian McGrattan (5 games, shoulder).

Affect: By the looks of it, the Calgary Flames aren't too keen on disclosing injuries. Lucky for them, they haven't had many of them this season, and it shows in the standing. It's no coincidence, and it's definitely a positive correlation between the two variables. The only question is whether the injury bug will leave them alone, or whether it's going to catch up with them as well.

Major Injuries: Ales Hemsky, torn labrun in left shoulder, out for season.

Arguably the Oilers best player was dealt a severe blow this week when he was informed that he would miss the entire season. He can't even have surgery yet due to inflammation around the injured area. This is a big blow to the Oilers, who lose a point per game player and a major leader, but also to the Czech Republic Olympic team, who lose a first liner. The Oilers will need to replace him, and fantasy players will need to drop him.

Key Injuries: Nikolai Khabibulin (back, day-to-day) is questionable for this week's games, and while he is listed as day-to-day, back injuries are always dangerous. His status could quickly be upgrated to "Major injury" if it's not as "day-to-day" as the oilers are making it sound. Mike Comrie (mono) is also out indefinitely with a bad flu. His numbers suffered as a result in the weeks leading up to his removal from the line-up. Fernando Pisani (ulcer) is also out indefinitely, as is Denis Grebeshkov (torn MCL), expected to miss another few weeks.

Minor Injuries: Taylor Chorney (ankle, IR), Robert Nilsson (IR, concussion), Ryan Stone (IR, knee surgery), Marc Poulio (IR, sports hernia)

Earlier Injuries: Brule (4 games, flu), Horcoff (4 games, shoulder), Staios (4 games, concussion), Souray (16 games, concussion), Jacques (7 games, back)

Affect: You gotta feel for the Oilers. First, they lose their top defenseman early in the season to a concussion. Then, they lose their best leader in Staios, also to a concussion. If that wasn't enough, young JF Jacques, who was breaking out at forward, misses 7 games. He's followed by Comrie, Grebeshkov, and most recently, starting goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, who have all missed significant time. If that wasn't enough, Hemsky is out for the season. While it's certain that the Oilers will try to pull off a move to help their injury-riddled team, you have to look at this group and wonder if there's even a point, if they can even make the playoffs.

Major Injuries: Brent Burns, out indefinitely with concussion.

The status of all-star defenseman Brent Burns is unclear, however he was played on the injury reserve on Friday with concussion symptoms and you have to think that any absense from Burns will hurt the team. Burns started the year with Olympic aspirations for team Canada, but you have to think that those aspirations are but a pipe dream at this point with his injury and the dismal year Minnesota has had.

Pierre Marc Bouchard, out indefintely, concussion.

Can you believe how many players from the Wild are out with concussions? They're comparing Bouchard's injury to Patrice Bergeron's concussion from 2007, that caused him to miss an entire season and struggle for another season. They're hoping Bouchard's injury isn't as bad, but from the look of things, it doesn't sound too great, and it's pretty scary for the young player.

Key Injuries: Marek Zidlicky (lower body, day-to-day) is arguably Minnesota's most important defenseman outside Burns, but his uncertain injury status bumps him down to key injury. Same deal for Martin Havlat (hamstring, day-to-day), although it looks like he's keeping Marian Gaborik's seat on Minnesota's injured reserve nice and warm. Petr Sykora (concussion/head) is out indefinitely after complications, but could resume working out this week)

Minor Injuries: Anti Miettinen (flu, day-to-day)

Earlier Injuries Clutterbuck (5 games, sprained ankle), Kobasew (5 games, upper body), Johnsson (7 games, upper body), Boogaard (2 games, illness)

Affect: Anyone will tell you that the Minnesota Wild's struggles are not due to injuries. In fact, they've played BETTER since some of their key players went on IR, going 5-2-3 in their last ten after bombing the first month + of the season. However, if the injuries to Bouchard, Burns, Zidlicky, Havlat and Sykora are as significant as they sound or worse, things could actually get worse for the Wild, who are bringing up the rear in 15th place in the western conference.

Well, that took longer than expected! Nevertheless, I will be back in the coming days, assuming people find this useful and interesting, with the Northeast Conference injury round-up, and judging by the injuries to the Montreal Canadiens, it's going to take me just as long, in all likelihood.

Hope this injury is useful to poolers and team fans, so enjoy it and use it wisely.

Back tomorrow,

Prax
www.thecheckingline.com
www.twitter.com/thecheckingline

1 point out of 15th in the West (but Anaheim and Minnesota have 3 and 2 games on hand respectively). 2-5-3 in last 10 games. 2-8-2 on the road. Should I go on? I thought this was going to be a Cinderella story, but the under achieving Oilers are skidding to a top five pick and fast. OK enough with the whining, now that I have that out of my system let us look at the team.

They have scoring power, an injured top ranked goalie and defense that should be scaring the opposition. They have played many tight games with only the last two being “pylon players”. They have a coach who will not stand for continued scrambling and will make them, or should I say force them, into getting back to the basics.

There is way too much talent on this team despite the injuries to continue a downward slide. But they need to pull up their jock straps and get on their skates and show what they are made of. Oilers are an expansion franchise that has a golden history like the original six, and some of the greatest fans in an arena.

I for one am not giving up, I stand tall and say. I AM AN OILERS FAN! Now quit embarrassing yourself and as Big John McCarthy would say "let’s get it on!!!!"

Stan VJ Lee