Could Daniel Sedin be out for long and its effect on Vancouver Canucks -NHL Special
Vancouver has luckily, not faced much injuries over the years and have had a healthy line-up most of the time except with Ryan Kesler and Manny Malhotra facing some issues last season, but with Daniel Sedin apparently out with an injury, could the Canucks
be gearing up for a slump?
One of the Canucks top forwards and Sedin twins, Daniel Sedin, went out in the first period during an extremely physical matchup against Chicago Blackhawks after he was elbowed by Duncan Keith right in the head.
The player found it hard to continue playing and could be seen to struggle with his balance, forcing him to leave the game and not make a comeback throughout.
"Everybody saw the head shot there, so [Sedin will be] re-evaluated tomorrow and I'll know more from there," Canucks coach, Alain Vigneault, said after the contest which Vancouver lost 2-1 in overtime.
Sedin will be re-evaluated and his status will be most likely announced in the upcoming days, but if the injury turns out to be serious requiring the player to miss a few games, what kind of impact could it have on the Vancouver team, yearning for a Stanley
Cup championship.
The surprising part for Vancouver was that Keith was only awarded a minor penalty instead of a five-minute major one.
"I expected a major, and I got a minor, so we'll let the league deal with it," Vigneault added. "You saw the hit, you didn't see a puck near the hit, you guys make the judgment call on that, and the league will do what they have to do."
When asked about the incident, Keith termed it as accidental and not intending on hurting anyone including Sedin.
"I'm not trying to hurt anybody," Keith said "I hope he's OK. He's one of their best players. He needs to be on the ice."
While Sedin is re-evaluated, it is expected that the National Hockey League (NHL) will be taking action on Duncan Keith’s hit and most probably, a suspension could be coming into play for the Blackhawks player.
The reason for a suspension would be that Shane Doan, captain of the Phoenix Coyotes, had also received a three-game suspension from the NHL on Wednesday, March 21, 2012, for his previous hit on Dallas Stars’ player, Jamie Benn, which was very similar in
nature.
It is the aspect of elbowing that will force the NHL to take action and hopefully for Vancouver, a suspension.
Daniel Sedin is an integral part of the Vancouver Canucks line-up and not having him on for however many games he might miss, can definitely not be termed to be good in any way. The 2010 Norris Trophy winner is a binding force on the team that gets everyone
moving while at the same time contributing himself to the maximum.
So far this season, Sedin has missed only one matchup with a total of 72 at the moment under his belt along with 67 points (30 goals, 37 assists) and a plus-minus rating of 14 and 40 minutes in penalty time.
While Duncan Keith regarded the hit as something he would have to see a replay of in order to fully assess, the NHL might just be putting the hammer down on the player by Thursday, resulting in both teams losing players for very important upcoming games.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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