In the interest of injury-related housekeeping, here are two little tidbits.
- TSN reports that Tomas Plekanec missed tonight’s game against the Buffalo Sabres with “flu-like” symptoms.
In the off-season I said that the Montreal Canadiens basically chose Plekanec and goalie Carey Price over playoff hero Jaroslav Halak. That decision actually is working out well for the Habs so far, as Price has often been the best player on the ice while Plekanec is tied for the team lead with 10 points going into tonight’s game. If his problems are only “flu like symptoms” then I wouldn’t expect him to miss much time.
Halak hasn’t been too shabby for the St. Louis Blues, either, so maybe it’s one of those situations that works out for both sides? It’s still too early, but that seems to be the case so far.
- While the Plekanec news is (slightly) bad, the other injury news seems pretty promising. NHL.com reports that Marian Hossa is getting close to returning to the ice, which is great news for the struggling Chicago Blackhawks.
It’s a bummer that Hossa has been ruled out of Saturday’s game against the Atlanta Thrashers since that team features a handful of former ‘Hawks, but coach Joel Quenneville said that he was involved in “all the contact drills” in practice today.
This doesn’t mean that Hossa will be back immediately, but the ‘Hawks could use his scoring burst (seven goals and 11 points already this season despite missing four games) at they lost three of their last four. Along with that game against Atlanta on Saturday, Chicago plays against Edmonton on Sunday, Phoenix on Wednesday and then Nashville on Saturday, November 13. My guess is that he should play by Wednesday or Saturday if he doesn’t face any setbacks.
In other good news for Chicago, Quenneville also said that two-way center Dave Bolland could return from an “upper-body injury” by mid-week as well.