{"id":133468,"date":"2022-11-14T13:14:50","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T18:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=133468"},"modified":"2022-11-14T13:14:50","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T18:14:50","slug":"columbus-blue-jackets-injuries-crippling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/11\/14\/columbus-blue-jackets-injuries-crippling\/","title":{"rendered":"Injuries Are Crippling Columbus Blue Jackets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Saturday, star right winger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/l\/lainepa01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Patrik Laine<\/a> sustained a sprained ankle in the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/11\/11\/columbus-blue-jackets-star-defencemn-out-for-season\/\" target=\"_self\">Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a>&#8216; 4-3 OT loss to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/islanders\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Islanders<\/a>. The club announced on Twitter that Laine will miss 3-4 weeks.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">INJURY UPDATE: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CBJ?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#CBJ<\/a> forward Patrik Laine suffered a sprained ankle in Saturday\u2019s game at the NY Islanders and is expected to miss 3-to-4 weeks.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CBJ Public Relations (@BlueJacketsPR) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BlueJacketsPR\/status\/1592194838535208960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 14, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Patrik Laine Compounding Columbus Blue Jackets Injuries<\/h2>\n<p>The injury bug has struck with a mighty fury in Columbus. Since last week&#8217;s 5-2 victory over the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/flyers\/\" target=\"_self\">Philadelphia Flyers<\/a>, the news has been all bad for the Blue Jackets on the injury front. During the Flyers game, top defensemen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/w\/werenza01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zach Werenski<\/a> went down with a season-ending shoulder injury that will require surgery. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/blankni01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nick Blankenburg<\/a>, an early-season spark plug, was lost for 6-8 weeks with a fractured ankle. Newly signed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/gudbrer01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Erik Gudbranson<\/a> was lost in the second period with an upper-body injury.<\/p>\n<p>This is the second time Laine has been injured in the early season. In the first game of the year, he suffered a hyperextended elbow. The Blue Jackets are finding out quickly if their organizational depth can keep the club afloat or if Blue Jackets general manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kekalja01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jarmo Kekalainen<\/a> will have to make a move to keep the club from plunging into a lost season. Laine joins Werenski, Blankenburg, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/boqviad01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adam Boqvist<\/a> (broken foot), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/d\/danfoju01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Justin Danforth<\/a> (shoulder, out for rest of the regular season), and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/v\/voracja01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jakub Voracek<\/a> (upper body, out indefinitely) with long term injuries, while Gudbranson, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kuralse01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sean Kuraly<\/a>, and rookie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/j\/johnske01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kent Johnson<\/a> are battling injuries and are listed as day-t0-day. Already struggling on defence in the early season, the Blue Jackets cobbled together a very young defensive group on Saturday that relied on veteran <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/gavrivl01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vladislav Gavrikov<\/a> as its anchor.<\/p>\n<h3>What This Means for the Future<\/h3>\n<p>Kekalainen has some decisions to make as to where this season goes. He&#8217;s been saddled with a horrible 4-9-1 start, an offence that struggles to score, a porous defence, and now significant injuries to key players. Kekalainen and the Blue Jackets season may be at a crossroads. Does Kekalainen stick to organizational depth to soldier through the injuries? Or use long-term IR cap relief to make a move to bring in some defensive help in the hopes of turning around the season?<\/p>\n<p>One move that Kekalainen did make was to leave 2022 top draft pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/j\/jiricda01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Jiricek<\/a> in AHL Cleveland to continue to develop. He opted not to potentially stunt the growth of the skilled 18-year-old defenseman playing on a depleted defensive core. The next month or two could be pretty long for the Blue Jackets fan base.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"2zmp3LhATb5E7qCxdvtqIg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1244493816\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'2zmp3LhATb5E7qCxdvtqIg',sig:'3FFu0duNx4jDG5E0JMRUezdIcukAigmb7nyJJ9ifkiU=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1244493816',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Saturday, star right winger Patrik Laine sustained a sprained ankle in the Columbus Blue Jackets&#8216; 4-3 OT loss to the New York Islanders. The club announced on Twitter that Laine will miss 3-4 weeks. INJURY UPDATE: #CBJ forward Patrik Laine suffered a sprained ankle in Saturday\u2019s game at the NY Islanders and is expected [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4348,"featured_media":133476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,4547,6671,34,4548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bluejackets","category-hockey","category-injuries","category-news","category-nhl"],"modified_by":"Josh Erickson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4348"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}