Saturday, January 21, 2012

Kane Out of Jets Line-Up

Bad news for the Winnipeg Jets, as they will be without their top goal scorer for an indefinite period of time, as Evander Kane has been diagnosed with a concussion and will have to go through the league protocol before making a return. Kane approached the team doctors with a headache this weekend and the diagnosis came down quickly, which means he'll be out of the line-up for at least a week, likely more.

Kane leads the Jets in goals with 18 after playing in 46 games and is 3rd on the team in pool scoring with 31 points, only following Ondrej Pavelec and Blake Wheeler. Kane has done a great job evolving as a player in the 2012 season and it is unfortunate that the process will be slowed down by a concussion at this point in the season.

The Jets are just on the outside looking in on the playoffs, before they face-off against the Panthers on Saturday night and being without Kane and Dustin Byfuglien in this stretch is going to make things very difficult for them.

ImplicationsThe injury bug has bitten Leon G. a number of times already this season and he is now without Kane, Ryane Clowe and Mike Green for a while and that should pretty well end any hope in his regular season.

Leon's team currently sits in 16th in the standings and has had one of their healthiest stretches in ages, but his team is still well-below average in games played from his skaters and he isn't getting much scoring when they are in the line-up, as his team is below average in scoring rate as well.  Tough year for Leon, who has won the draft before, it just won't happen again.

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