Ekblad's Tournament Appears to be Over

There were rumblings about something significant surrounding Aaron Ekblad's upper-body injury, some suggestions out there were saying that it could have been a concussion that he suffered in the game against Finland over the weekend, but Team North America are continuing to hold their cards close to the vest on this one.

On Tuesday, there are now reports that the Florida Panthers have recalled their franchise defenseman, increasing the chatter that the injury is considered to be somewhat serious and that a concussion is certainly possible.

For all intents and purposes, it does sound like Ekblad's tournament is now done and now the question marks are being labeled on his training camp and preseason at this point.

This is surely a disappointment for Neil, who will now be without a key portion of his World Cup pool team.  His team is still in the hunt, as there are still plenty of options on his team to keep him afloat, but losing players to injury is significant.  Team North America won't be able to replace him, now that the tournament has already started and there is no replacement given to his pool team in this case either, as it wasn't a pre-tournament injury that knocked him out.