Injury Updates (Sep 25)

The Bruins collective is holding their breath today, as they are waiting for news on their captain and pillar on the blueline, Zdeno Chara, as he left last night's game against the New York Rangers.  Chara left the game in the 1st period after only taking a few shifts and logging less than two minutes worth of ice-time.  After the game, the Bruins coaching staff didn't really have an update for everyone, so we continue to wait.

The jury of projections were somewhat split on what Chara was going to do this season, three said 40+ points in a bounce back sort of season, while the other two were in the mid-20's.  If this injury is serious, then the latter may be the closer of the bunch.

This is probably nothing, but the Arizona Coyotes held their inter-squad game on Thursday night and decided against dressing their captain Shane Doan for the game, citing a lower-body injury.  It may be more of a precaution or he could just use the rest, instead of a game that meant very little before the preseason really kicked off for the Coyotes.  Nevertheless, it's something to keep an eye on.

Doan's productivity has dropped off in recent years and it should come as no surprise that all five projection lists that I've seen so far have him in the 30-to-35 point range this year.  This will mean that he'll fall down in the draft and with a bottom end team, those projections may be hard to come by.

Wild forward Justin Fontaine suffered a charley horse on Thursday after taking close to a knee-on-knee hit from Columbus forward David Clarkson, who escaped any league punishment after the game.  Fontaine is likely just day-to-day for the time being and will probably get a day or two off from camp, nothing too serious.

This year, it would appear that Fontaine has a pretty good chance at making an appearance in the draft.  His projections have stretched between 30 and 40 points in the off-season.

The Colorado Avalanche are being cautious with a hip problem that veteran forward Jarome Iginla is dealing with these days and it appears that he'll be limited in the amount of ice-time he'll get in this preseason.  He's currently on the list as out day-to-day for now and his availability for the Avalanche's next preseason game, Sunday, home to Los Angeles, is currently up in the air.  I wouldn't imagine that the team will rush Iginla back and will likely try to get him into a game or two, just before the end of the preseason calendar.

There are still some reasonable expectations on the 38-year old forward, as his projections stem anywhere between 48-to-65 points.  If the Avalanche are going to score goals, which they should, he should be right in the middle of it, assuming he's healthy.

The Red Wings updated a couple of small injury concerns, as AHL dynamo Teemu Pulkkinen is dealing with an upper-to-mid-body injury, which is a day-to-day issue at the moment, while Mike Green is also dealing with an undisclosed injury, also day-to-day.

It really sounds like Pulkkinen is cementing his spot on the Red Wings' opening night roster, so you'll want to keep an eye on his progress through the rest of the preseason, while the injury prone Green makes another appearance in the injury blogs, but I would expect him to be ready for opening night.

There was one more late addition to the injury page on Friday afternoon, just as games started to go early in the day. The Nashville Predators are dealing with a lower-body issue for forward James Neal, who was reportedly hurt on Wednesday night against Tampa Bay. The Predators don't play another preseason game for a few days, so there isn't a great deal of concern, it's just worth noting that Neal is not off to the best of starts.

The 28-year old forward has had some injury problems in the past, but a lot of the projections have him bouncing back this year, possibly hitting a ceiling of about 60 points.  In order to do that, he'll have to be 100% for the better part of the season.

Click here for the updated injury/news page on the website