The goalie conundrum is a little less puzzling in Dallas, as we head into the weekend, but it should only be a short-term problem. Kari Lehtonen, who was pulled from a relief appearance on Tuesday night, due to an upper-body injury, missed practice on Wednesday and has now been placed on the Injured Reserve, expected to miss the minimum amount of time, around 7 days, with the injury. When the NHL returns from its quick Thanksgiving break, Jack Campbell will be called upon to be the team's back-up behind Antti Niemi.
Lehtonen has been good in the 1A/1B situation with Niemi, winning 9 games and adding 2 assists this season for 20 points, ranking 47th overall in pool scoring and averaging 2.1 points per 60 minutes played this season. That is a very solid effort, despite not getting all the game, thus far.
Again, on the plus side, it isn't supposed to be a long-term injury and it would be considered questionable to suggest how many starts he would have actually have missed in this upcoming week, but you would be fair to assume two. Dale C. could use those starts, now 33 points out of the money and his team barely hanging on to a top five spot in the PIM pool as well. I would imagine that he will push for the points in the Waiver Draft next week, but he'll want that boost of one of his goalies coming back before too long as well.
Click here for the updated injury/news page on the website
No comments:
Post a Comment