Sharp to Miss Time

As first noted in the Week Twenty-Four Newsletter on Monday morning, Patrick Sharp suffered a knee injury on Sunday and the latest update on his condition is that he is expected to miss time down the stretch, although it is unclear how much time (one report says up to three weeks) he'll exactly miss.  At this point, it sounds like the team is taking Sharp's injury on a day by day basis and that's about all we can expect from a team like the Hawks, especially with the playoffs on their mind.

The Blackhawks only have nine games left in the regular season and they are not guaranteed a playoff spot by any means as of Tuesday.  Chicago only sits 1 point up on 9th place Dallas, with no games in hand, so any slide could be devastating to their chances.

Sharp has been very good this season for Chicago, second in team scoring with 34 goals and 34 assists (68 points) in 71 games, scoring at nearly a point-per-game, ranking him 21st in pool scoring overall, setting a new career-high in points.  Sharp leads the team in goals and is only 2 goals away from this career-high in that category, which has made him into quite the bargain for poolies, especially if you were basing his selection on some previous years.

With only nine games left and scoring at nearly a point-per-game, that could very well add up to 8 or 9 points down the stretch and Benson G. is currently 7 points out of the money, so those are points he could desperately use.  If Sharp doesn't play another game in the regular season, that could mean a 14 to 16 point swing in Stuart G.'s direction, locking up the 4th place spot.  Thankfully, the diagnosis is only day-to-day, but there should be a fear that it could stretch for a while.

Link to the Injury/News Page