Concussion Knocks Out Visnovsky

The New York Islanders go into Sunday in a projected playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and there is quite a bit of credit being handed out to the veterans that have come in through the team's re-tooling. Unfortunately, one of those key veterans, Lubomir Visnovsky, was forced to leave Saturday night's game against the Hurricanes with a concussion.

Visnovsky will be re-evaluated over the next couple of days, figuring out the next steps to this concussion, but protocol will dictate that the veteran blueliner will miss the next week, at the very least.

To start the season, Visnovsky has 1 goal and 2 assists in the first eight games of the season, which are not blinding totals, by any stretch of the imagination, but he does provide the team with some of the intangibles.

Last season, Visnovsky finished with 3 goals and 11 assists in 35 games of the shortened NHL season, helping the Islanders make the playoffs.  His contributions, beyond his scoring, were a big part of that successful season on the island.

This week has been awful for Ryan M., who had already lost defenseman Dan Boyle to a concussion, thanks to an ugly incident earlier in the week.  Ryan will now have four inactive players on his roster to start Week Four, two of which are a concussion, another in the minors and finally, one day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

In Week Three, Ryan dropped down from 10th to 13th in the standings and with the bodies leaving his line-up, it appears that his team will be on another elevator down.