{"id":38095,"date":"2018-11-17T13:49:53","date_gmt":"2018-11-17T18:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=38095"},"modified":"2020-12-26T16:37:43","modified_gmt":"2020-12-26T21:37:43","slug":"new-jersey-devils-place-sami-vatanen-on-injured-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2018\/11\/17\/new-jersey-devils-place-sami-vatanen-on-injured-reserve\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey Devils Place Sami Vatanen on Injured Reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/devils\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Jersey Devils<\/a> have announced that defenceman<strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/v\/vatansa01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sami Vatanen<\/a><\/strong> is sidelined for at least a week with a lower-body injury. He was placed on the injured reserve retroactive to Nov. 15.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/NJDevils\/status\/1063820374952091648<\/p>\n<h1>Sami Vatanen Injured<\/h1>\n<p>Vatanen left four minutes, 38 seconds<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/devils\/index.ssf\/2018\/11\/devils_flyers_rapid_reaction_11-15.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> into the second period<\/a> after taking a high-stick from the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/flyers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Philadelphia Flyers<\/a> <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/p\/provoiv01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ivan Provorov<\/a><\/strong>. The Finn then crashed into the boards awkwardly before skating off. He was favoring his left leg in the tunnel.<\/p>\n<p>The Jyvaskyla, Finland native has scored one goal and six assists for seven points to go along with 10 penalty minutes. His possession numbers are 49.6 percent Corsi\u00a0and a relative Corsi of 0.7.<\/p>\n<p>He has played for the Anaheim Ducks and New Jersey Devils over his eight-year NHL career. Vatanen has 37 goals and 124 assists for 161 career points in 354\u00a0career games. The Anaheim Ducks drafted him in the fourth round, 106th overall of the 2009 NHL draft.<\/p>\n<p>New Jersey called up veteran <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/grybaer01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Eric Gryba<\/a><\/strong> from AHL Binghamton.\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/y\/yakoveg01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Egor Yakovlev<\/a><\/strong> draws into the lineup against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/red-wings\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Detroit Red Wings<\/a> on Saturday. Vatanen will be eligible to return to the lineup on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The Devils will also be without <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/hischni01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nico Hischier<\/a> <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northjersey.com\/story\/sports\/nhl\/devils\/fireandice\/2018\/11\/17\/nj-devils-take-hit-blue-line-sami-vatanen-ir\/2038226002\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">for a third straight game<\/a>.\u00a0Hischier will miss his third straight game with a wrist injury. He could return Sunday against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/hurricanes\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carolina Hurricanes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>What This Means for the Future<\/h2>\n<p>The injuries come at a bad time as the Devils are trying to recapture the magic of last season&#8217;s surprise playoff run. New Jersey sits tied for seventh with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Metropolitan Division.<\/p>\n<p>Vatanen has gone without a point in his last four games, but was a key contributor in last year&#8217;s playoff run. The Finn provided 25 assists in 2017-18 and helped stabilize a young defence. His best season was 2015-16 when he totaled nine goals and 29 assists for 38 points.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2018\/04\/Sami-Vatanen.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<p>NEWARK, NJ &#8211; APRIL 03: Sami Vatanen #45 of the New Jersey Devils skates against the New York Rangers at the Prudential Center on April 3, 2018 in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils defeated the Rangers 5-2. (Photo by Bruce Bennett\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New Jersey Devils have announced that defenceman Sami Vatanen is sidelined for at least a week with a lower-body injury. He was placed on the injured reserve retroactive to Nov. 15. https:\/\/twitter.com\/NJDevils\/status\/1063820374952091648 Sami Vatanen Injured Vatanen left four minutes, 38 seconds into the second period after taking a high-stick from the Philadelphia Flyers Ivan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":27454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[13,34],"tags":[514,5738,151,2569,955,922,1876],"class_list":["post-38095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-devils","category-news","tag-eric-gryba","tag-hockey-news","tag-new-jersey-devils","tag-news","tag-nhl-news","tag-nico-hischier","tag-sami-vatanen"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38095","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\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}